Great ushebti; Egypt, Lower Epoch, 664-323 B.C.

Great ushebti; Egypt, Lower Epoch, 664-323 BC.
Fayenza.
Provenance: old English collection.
Measurements: 18 x 5 x 3 cm.
Large Egyptian ushebti dated to the Late Epoch, made of blue faience. The ushebtis are small statuettes that were deposited in the tombs as part of the funerary trousseau of the deceased. 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. 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 tillage in the kingdom of the shadows, replicas of the deceased, from the New Empire onwards they came to be seen as servants or slaves of the deceased, being made in large quantities.