Shawabty of Pinudjem I, High Priest of Amen and King (c. 990–969 BCE): Art, History and Details

Shawabty of Pinudjem I, High Priest of Amen and King (c. 990–969 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This small mummiform funerary figurine was a surrogate for the deceased that performed menial tasks for its owner in the afterlife. Mold-made and decorated with paint, this shawabty contains the name of a king within a cartouche. The vibrant blue color occurs during the firing process as a chemical reaction with the pigments in the faience paste, in this case added copper.

Object facts

• Title: Shawabty of Pinudjem I, High Priest of Amen and King
• Date: c. 990–969 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Third Intermediate (1069–715 BCE), Dynasty 21
• Type: Funerary Equipment
• Technique: bright blue faience with purple details
• Dimensions: Overall: 11 x 3.6 x 2.5 cm (4 5/16 x 1 7/16 x 1 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Third Intermediate
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1914.582

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.