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This lady's ushebti box would have
contained the full complement of funerary
figures required for burial in the Third
Intermediate Period. Probably small glazed
faience ushebtis, numbering 401, were
deposited in the box, where they were believed
to lie sleeping until invoked to work by the
names and spells inscribed on them. In the
Twenty-first Dynasty it was common to inscribe
the figures only with the name and titles of the
deceased, but this was sufficient to identify
the ushebtis when work was ordered in the
afterlife. The box is designed with the
barrel-vaulted roof associated with the Lower
Egyptian Shrine. The exterior surface has been
given over to scenes similar to those on papyrus
or tomb walls. The box itself is made of a
number of pieces of wood that have been pegged
together and plastered over to hid any
differences in materials. The lids, hardly
vaulted at all, have pegs as knobs, and similar
pegs had been placed on the sides so that the
lids could be tied down for sealing. On one
side of the box the god Anubis is shown lying in
a wakeful pose. His tail does not hang down but
is up as if he were ready to spring. The god
holds the crook and flail of rulership, the
emblems associated with Osiris particularly.
Anubis thus protects the deceased who becomes an
Osiris and her funerary equipment as well. The
opposite side of the box shows the deceased
kneeling in a papyrus boat, as she rows herself
across the sky. The inscription runs as follows,
fromright to left: "The Osiris, the mistress of
the house, the singer of Amun-Re, king of the
gods, Djed-Maat-iuesankh, vindicated. Ferrying
in peace to the Filed of Reeds, that excellent
bas may be received". The lady is shown wearing
a long linen garment that spreads out around her
one upraised knee. She wears a red fillet on her
head, similar to those worn by participants in
funerary rituals. On the short side of the box
we see the left eye of the sun god, here
indicating the moon, or evening solar orb.
Djed-Maat-iuesankh rows away from the evening
toward the morning and the right eye of the sun.
Beneath the left eye, on the right, is the
hieroglyph for the west, reaching out to extend
life to the deceased. The ba of
Djed-Maat-iuesankh stands over food offerings in
the gesture of adoration, presumably toward the
sun god. |