Bellingcat Stage Talk 3

Ushabtis – Lovre Museum – Paris

The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings) are funerary figurines were placed in Egyptian tombs among the other grave goods. They could be very ornate or also very simple.

Four ushabtis of Khabekhnet and their box; 1279–1213 BCE; painted limestone – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Purpose: Ushabtis were funerary figurines that were intended to act as substitutes for the deceased, should he/she be called upon to do manual labor in the afterlife.
Number: The ideal number of ushabti to bury with a deceased person was 401, which included 365 worker ushabti and 36 slightly larger overseer ushabti, added to monitor and control the worker ushabti.
Materials: Ushabtis were made from a variety of materials, including mud, wax, stone, wood, alabaster, and faience.
Storage: Ushabtis could be placed scattered about in tombs or in boxes.
Time period: The use of ushabti became more popular during the Third Intermediate Period (1070–664 BC).

For more nifty examples of how these nifty figurines can be used in OSINT researcher, see ARCA’s blog post here.