Egypt Exploration Society

Uschebti. Arbeiter im gyptischen Totenreich by Hermann A. Schlgl; Christa Meves-Schlgl Review by: John H. Taylor The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 83 (1997), pp. 237-238 Published by: Egypt Exploration Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3822475 . Accessed: 18/06/2013 05:31
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1997

REVIEWS

237

to our minds, is a much better study than that of Goedicke, SAK 20 (1993), 67-79, which appearedat the same time. Despite the shortcomings of the pottery chapter, which are more than made up for by the studies of Hope and Kaper,this book is a valuableadditionto the Tutankhamuntomb literature, and for the most part, can be highly recommended.
D. A. ANDB. G. ASTON

Uschebti. Arbeiter im agyptischen Totenreich. By HERMANNA. SCHLOGL AND CHRISTA MEVES-

227 X315 mm. Pp. 78, pls. 104 (unnumbered). Wiesbaden, HarrassowitzVerlag, SCHLOGL. 1993. ISBN 3 447 03357 6. Price DM 108.

This short book, dedicated to Erik Hornung, is a publication of 24 shabtis from private collections.With one exception,all the figures are hithertounpublished. A one-page preface providesan outline of the function and developmentof shabti figures, and includes a brief reviewof the main studies of the subject. The remainderof the book is devoted to a description of each figure, with notes on the owner's name and titles, dating, dimensions, material,colour, provenanceand condition.The inscriptionsare reproducedin hand-copies,and translations are provided.Where appropriate,comments are given on the iconography,texts, provenanceand dating of the figures. There are references to other shabtis of the same owner, and to comparable pieces belongingto differentpersons, one of the stated aims of the study being the identification,through stylistic similarities,of figures which may have been produced in the same workshop.Each figure is illustratedin two to four black and white photographs. Seven of the shabtis date to the New Kingdom, five to the Twenty-firstand Twenty-second Dynasties, and the remainderto the Twenty-fifthDynastyto the PtolemaicPeriod. Since they do not constitute a representativecross-section of shabti development,it is not clear on what basis the selection has been made, nor is informationon the present whereaboutsof the figures given. Some have reliableprovenances,others do not, and they range from high qualitypieces, such as to the very crude specimens, nos. 18 and those of Djehutymose,Horiraaand Wahibre-emakhet, 21. With one exception, all the figures are of well-knowntypes, and some (such as nos. 14-16) are familiarfrom comparableexamples in variousmuseum collections. The most unusual piece, no. 3, is a shabti made for the burialof the overseerof cattle of Amun Djehutymose,who was interred at Tuna el-Gebel. Although conventionalin other respects, the shabti has the head of a baboon and in the text the name of the owner is preceded by that of Hapy, one of the sons of Horus. As the authors point out, there is a jackal-headedshabti belonging to the same man now in the Toledo Museum of Art, although on this example the inscription mentions only 'the Osiris, overseer of cattle Djehutymose', leaving the jackal head unexplained. Hans Schneider had supposed (Shabtis, I (Leiden, 1977), 264-5) that this figure was meant to identify the owner as Anubis, but the Schlogls are surely correct in challenging this view and in suggesting that Djehutymose possessed shabti figures representing all four of the sons of Horus. There is a valuable discussion of the possible significance of these figures, in which passing reference is made to the only other knowncanine-headedshabti,that of Nahuher,BritishMuseum EA 47398. It is perhapsworth mentioningthat this figure comes from D. G. Hogarth'sexcavationsat Asyut, 1906-7, and that it is inscribed with Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead-not present on the on the standard examplesmade for Djehutymose.These figures representan interestingvariation of the shabti, and it is much to be hoped that further exampleswill come role and iconography to light, makingpossible a more accurateinterpretation of their function. Otherwise, the book calls for little comment. The discussions are invariablyup-to-date and useful. The photographsare of somewhat uneven quality.Some are not sharp (nos. 5, 21, 22b) and appear to have been printed at too great an enlargement. In others the lighting is unsatisfactoryand the contrastcorrespondingly poor.Nonetheless, this is on the whole a well-produced

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238 antiquities.

REVIEWS

JEA 83

and useful addition to the literature on one of the most fascinating classes of Egyptian
JOHN H. TAYLOR

Akoris. Report of the Excavations at Akoris in Middle Egypt, 1981-1992. By THE PALEOLOGICAL OF JAPAN, INC., EGYPTIAN COMMITTEE. 215 X 303 mm. Text volume, pp. xix + 484, ASSOCIATION

figs. 304. Plates volume, monochromepls. 157, colour pls. 6. Kyoto,Koyo Shobo, 1995. ISBN 4 7710 0755 1. Yen 20,000.

from Excavationsand surveysof Tehneh el-Gebel (Akoris)have been undertakensporadically at least 1716 (cf. C. Sicard, Oeuvres I. Lettres et relations inedits (Cairo, 1982), 7-8), and excavationreports are scattered throughout Egyptologicalliterature. The book under review, however,is the first monographdedicated solely to excavationsat this interesting site in Middle Egypt, and basically describes the results of several seasons' work by the Heian Museum of Ancient History, continued after the Museum's closure in 1988, by the PaleologicalAssociation of Japan. Separated into eight sections, written by a number of different authors, the book comprises:a general introduction(pp. 1-10); a chapter-really much more thanjust a chapterentitled 'Architectureand Stratigraphy', which describes the actual excavations(pp. 11-179); a detailed list of the objects found (pp. 181-259); technologicalstudies (pp. 261-97); philological studies (pp. 299-380); chemical studies (pp. 381-420); and various appendices (pp. 421-472), ending with a historicalsummaryin English and Japanese. The introductorysection comprises a short descriptionof previouswork at the site, a list of staff members, and a statement of the purpose of the excavations, which we are told, was 1) to elucidate the constitutionand function of the city; 2) to establish the chronologicalsequence of the city;3) to verifythe philologicalresults of previousstudies; and 4) to obtainCoptic texts. The general description of previouswork at the site is very brief and incomplete;for a much fuller treatment of this topic, the reader would be better advised to consult E. Bernard,Inscriptions grecques et latines d'Ach6ris(Cairo, 1988), vii-xx (hereafterIGLA). Interestingly,the Japanese team chose both to re-excavateparts alreadycleared, sometimes with surprisingresults, and to excavateareas previouslyuntouched. The section devoted to the actual excavationsbegins with a reclearanceof six tomb chapels, designatedby the excavators A-F, located near the so-called Western Temple. When the shaft in Chapel B was recleared, the south burial chamber still containedthe burnt,damagedremnantsof three burialsof the earlyTwelfth Dynasty(pp. 27-33), with extantremainsof three coffins,a wooden boat model, kohl pots, a wooden headrest,a bronze mirrorand pottery.Whilst dated simply to the Middle Kingdomby the excavators, and to the late Twelfth the restorers of the boat the can be more closely model, Dynastyby Eleventh-early group dated to the reign of Sesostris I by the associated pottery.Chapels C-F were originallycleared by Abou Seif (ASAE 26 (1926), 32-8), and numberedfrom 1-4. H. Kawanishiand S. Tsujimura seem surprised (pp. 37-8) that the 380 shabtis and broken coffins found by Abou Seif within ChapelD ( = Tombeau 3) were no longer there. It mayinterest them to knowthat the 380 shabtis (of the overseer of the city, and vizier Ankhwennefer)are now in Cairo, inventorynumbers JE 49639-51,whilst the mask of the innermostcoffin is also in Cairo(JE 49652), the remainingcoffin fragments presumably having been too decayed to save. Indeed, it is strange that although Kawanishi and Tsujimura refer to both Abou Seif's and Gauthier's (ASAE 26 (1926), 41-3) reports and their finds, they do not mention the names of the people buried here. As well as the vizierAnkhwennefer, they are the second prophetof Amun, Pasherenese,the like titledAnkhefenkhons, an ordinary priest of Amun, Ankhefenthoth and a god's father of Amun, Amenemopet. From their titles these men clearlyexercised duties in Thebes, but are curiouslyomitted from K. A. Kitchen's The ThirdIntermediate Period in Egypt 1100-650 BC (Warminster,1972, supplement 1986,reprintwith additionalpreface 1996). within the Western Temple area itself are described in detail on pp. 43-130. The Excavations temple was originallybuilt under Nero and subsequently overbuiltby domestic structures, and it is these which are described in depth, whilst the temple itself is mostly ignored.Test trenches

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