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Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · statue

Ushabti Figure of Ka-ha

Source of record: Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

<p>Ushabti (meaning "answerers"), also called "shawabti," which resemble miniature mummies, were made mostly from inexpensive materials such as wood or Egyptian faience. These funerary statuettes represent the individual whom they accompanied into the tomb and the afterlife. If a god called on the deceased to perform labor, this servant substitute, magically invoked by a traditional spell, would answer and do the work on behalf of the tomb's owner.This ushabti served as a proxy for the "chief painter Ka-ha," who worked at Deir el-Medina during the reign of Ramesses III (1185-1153).</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/22.187' rel='external'>Ushabti Figure of Ka-ha</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>

AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano

Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A limestone ushabti figure (mummiform, standing on a pedestal) with painted facial features and extensive painted hieroglyphic text on the body.

The image shows a small mummiform figurine with a rounded head and a stylized face, including painted eyes and a light-painted wig/hairline. The arms are shown crossed over the chest (or upper torso). The lower portion includes a vertically arranged field of painted hieroglyphs spanning the front of the torso down to the base/pedestal. A broad painted band and smaller geometric lines appear around the chest and upper torso, consistent with decorative/inscribed bands typical of ushabti inscriptions. The background is dark, and the figure stands upright on a separate base/pedestal. No clear cartouche is legible at this resolution, and no Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible. Deity iconography is not clearly identifiable from this view.

funerary Ancient Egypt, Late Period to Ptolemaic (ushebti-style; exact date unclear) good
Materials limestone (light stone body)paint (black/blue/greenish and reddish-brown traces on face, torso bands, and hieroglyphs)
Signs Egyptian hieroglyphs in vertical registers (exact signs unclear) ×30
Visible text "Painted hieroglyphic text in vertical registers on the front of the figure; individual words/letters not reliably legible in the provided image. No clearly readable cartouche or complete name preserved at this resolution."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1

English description

[Inscription, standard ushabti formula] for ""the Osiris, chief of the painters, Ka-ha, the blessed""

Connections

Royals Ramesses III

Cross-references (2)

  • Walters-AccNum 22.187 tier-2
  • Walters-id 10745 tier-2

Similar inscriptions · by content embedding

About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.