Limestone Ushabtis of Rameses II’s Officials

Here are a couple of limestone 𓇋𓈖𓈙𓌉 ushabti 𓅱𓈙𓃀𓏏𓏭𓀾 figures that belonged to three 𓏼 different officials who served during the reign of Rameses II. While faience 𓋣𓈖𓏏𓏸𓏼 ushabti 𓅱𓈙𓃀𓏏𓏭𓀾 figures are the most commonly found (because they are easier to mass produce and there needed to be 300+ of them in a tomb), limestone 𓇋𓈖𓈙𓌉 ushabti 𓅱𓈙𓃀𓏏𓏭𓀾 figures are not a rare find from New Kingdom burials. I love how most of these still contain some original paint – the black 𓆎𓅓 paint around the eyes 𓁹𓏦 is in stark contrast to the white 𓌉𓆓𓇳 limestone 𓇋𓈖𓈙𓌉 and it looks so cool!

These ushabti 𓅱𓈙𓃀𓏏𓏭𓀾 figures all have inscriptions 𓏟𓏛𓏥 on them. The purpose of the inscription 𓏟𓏛𓏥 was to guide the ushabti 𓅱𓈙𓃀𓏏𓏭𓀾 on its role in serving the deceased 𓅓𓏏𓏱 in the afterlife 𓇼𓄿𓏏𓉐! All of these contain spells mentioning the god 𓊹 Osiris 𓁹𓊨𓀭, which is common because Osiris’ 𓁹𓊨𓀭 realm was the Duat 𓇼𓄿𓏏𓉐 (afterlife).

Fun Fact! There are two 𓏻 ways to write ushabti in hieroglyphs 𓊹𓌃𓏪:

𓆷𓄿𓍯𓃀𓏏𓏮𓀾 – šwbtj – the earlier word that was used in Egypt.
𓅱𓈙𓃀𓏏𓏭𓀾 – wšbtj – the “newer” form of the word. This is where the Egyptological term of “ushabti” or “shabti” (both are correct terms to use) originated from!