WALTERS-EG
Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · figurine
Ushabti of Ah-mose
Description
<p>Ushabti (meaning "answerers"), also called "shawabti," which resemble miniature mummies, were made of different materials such as wood or Egyptian faience (ceramic-like material). 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 in the afterlife, this servant substitute, magically invoked by a traditional spell, would answer and do the work on behalf of the tomb's owner.This ushabti figure displays its owner with a long wig and a divine chin beard with a plaited pattern and curved lower end. He holds hoes for field work in his hands and has a back pillar. The inscription, which contains the "Ushabti-formula" from the sixth chapter of the "Book of the Dead," is laid out in nine rows below his arms.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/48.397' rel='external'>Ushabti of Ah-mose</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 small, light blue glazed faience ushabti (servant figurine) shown standing, with a seated-like head and crossed arms holding tools/objects on the chest.
The image depicts a standing Egyptian ushabti figurine on a rectangular modern display base. The figure has a rounded head with a tripartite/pleated headdress and a simplified facial rendering (almond eyes, arched eyebrows, and a straight nose). The arms are held across the front of the torso, with the hands gripping what appears to be tool-like forms or bundles on the chest. The lower body is covered by dense incised hieroglyphic text bands arranged in rows across the torso, suggesting a dedicatory/worker inscription typical of ushabti. The background is dark and the lighting emphasizes the glossy surface and pale light-blue glaze over the figurine. No cartouche or clearly legible royal titulary is confidently identifiable at this resolution.
funerary
unknown (style consistent with Late Period/Early–mid New Kingdom ushabti tradition, but not securely datable from this image alone)
good
Materials
Egyptian faience with light blue glaze
Signs
incised hieroglyphic text (various determinatives/phonetic signs in stacked rows)
Visible text
"Lower/torso inscription present but not clearly legible in this image; appears as multiple stacked lines of incised hieroglyphs typical of ushabti texts."
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
[Translation] ""The Osiris: the royal scribe, Ah-mose, born of Hetep-bastet.""
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 48.397 tier-2
- Walters-id 25882 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.