Ushebti for the singer of Amun Heredemaat. Egypt, New Empire, 18th dynasty, c. 1550 - 1292 BC.

Ushebti for the singer of Amun Heredemaat. Ancient Egypt, New Empire, 18th dynasty, c. 1550 - 1292 BC.
Gray steatite.
Provenance: Private collection of Bodo Bleß (1940-2022), Berlin, acquired from S. Michel, London, in July 1962.
It has a break at the knees.
Attached is a study on the antiquity of the piece by the Egyptologist and architect Fernando Estrada Laza. Author of "Los Obreros de la Muerte" and "Entender y Amar el Arte Egipcio". Advisor to the architectural team Lamela, for the project of the future Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo (GEM). Advisor to the architectural team of Arata Isozaki (Tokyo), for the organization and selection of pieces for the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) and the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo (GEM).
Measurements: 22 cm (height).

(1) "May the Osiris of the singer of Amun Heredemaat be enlightened (2) he says: Oh! ushebty if this (3) Osiris is called to do all the work to be done (4) in the Hereafter (necropolis), cultivate the fields (5) and transport the sand from east to west, (you will say: here) am I".

The ushebtis, Egyptian term meaning "those who respond", are small statuettes that, in ancient Egypt, were deposited in the tombs as part of the grave goods of the deceased, and whose function was to replace him in the work to be done in the Hereafter. Most of them were made of ceramic, wood or stone, although in the richest tombs they could be found carved in lapis lazuli. The oldest preserved examples come from the Middle Empire, although we already find references to them in texts from the end of the Ancient Empire. The ushebtis are, after the sacred scarabs, the most numerous and possibly the most characteristic pieces of Egyptian art that have survived to the present day. Throughout time they always maintained the same function in the religious sphere but, while during the Middle Empire they were conceived as the representation of their owner before Osiris in the tasks of farming in the kingdom of the shadows, replicas of the deceased, from the New Empire they came to be seen as servants or slaves of the latter, being made in large quantities.