Shawabty of Ditamenpaankh (715–656 BCE): Art, History and Details

Shawabty of Ditamenpaankh (715–656 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

High demand for shawabtys in the Late Period (when as many as 400 or more shawabtys were placed in a tomb), gave rise to a specialized container for storing them. This shawabty box was probably one of a pair originally made for the lady Ditamenpaankh. The single-masted boat on the lid may refer to the pilgrimage of the deceased to the holy city of Abydos, the cult city of Osiris, king of the dead. The sides are inscribed with the traditional shawabty spell charging the funerary servants with their duties. The shawabtys inside are crude, mass-produced examples that were cast in an open mold. Made of terracotta, their blue paint imitates more costly shawabtys made of faience.

Object facts

• Title: Shawabty of Ditamenpaankh
• Date: 715–656 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 25
• Type: Funerary Equipment
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 4.1 x 1.6 x 1 cm (1 5/8 x 5/8 x 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Late Period
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1914.718.38

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.