Pharaohs Of The Sun

Shabti of Akhenaten with a bag wig

Probably from Amarna, Royal Tomb
Reign of Akhenaten, 1353-1336 B.C.
Red granite; h. 27 cm
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jack A. Josephson, 1982,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Akhenaten died in the seventeenth year of his reign. Provision for the afterlife had always been central to Egyptian religion, but it is not clear to what degree the new worship of Aten addressed these needs. Funerary practices at Amarna echoed some older forms; for example, shabtis were prepared for the king's tomb. Shabtis were mummiform figures intended to labor as the deceased's representative in the fields of the afterlife and provide sustenance in the eternal realm. The shabtis of Akhenaten lack the traditional inscription that mentions Osiris, god of the afterlife. They are inscribed instead only with the king's name and title.


		Shabti of Akhenaten with a bag wig Probably from Amarna, Royal Tomb Reign of Akhenaten, 1353-1336 B.C. Red granite; h. 27 cm Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jack A. Josephson, 1982, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Akhenaten died in the seventeenth year of his reign. Provision for the afterlife had always been central to Egyptian religion, but it is not clear to what degree the new worship of Aten addressed these needs. Funerary practices at Amarna echoed some older forms; for example, shabtis were prepared for the king's tomb. Shabtis were mummiform figures intended to labor as the deceased's representative in the fields of the afterlife and provide sustenance in the eternal realm. The shabtis of Akhenaten lack the traditional inscription that mentions Osiris, god of the afterlife. They are inscribed instead only with the king's name and title.