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The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings, Ancient Egyptian plural: ''ushabtiu'') was a funerary figurine used in Ancient Egypt. Ushabtis were placed in tombs among the grave goods and were intended to act as servants or minions for the deceased, should he/she be called upon to do manual labor in the afterlife. The figurines frequently carried a hoe on their shoulder and a basket on their backs, implying they were intended to farm for the deceased. They were usually written on by the use of hieroglyphs typically found on the legs. Called “answerers,” they carried inscriptions asserting their readiness to answer the gods' summons to work.〔ushabti. (2003). In The Macmillan Encyclopedia.〕 The practice of using ushabtis originated in the Old Kingdom (c. 2600 to 2100 BCE) with the use of life-sized reserve heads made from limestone, which were buried with the mummy.〔Taylor, Richard. "SHABTI (USHABTI, SHAWABTI)." Death and the Afterlife: a cultural encyclopedia. California: 2000.〕 Most ushabtis were of minor size, and many produced in multiples – they sometimes covered the floor around a sarcophagus. Exceptional ushabtis are of larger size, or produced as a one of-a-kind master work. Due to the ushabti's commonness through all Egyptian timeperiods, and world museums' desire to represent ancient Egyptian art objects, the ushabti is one of the most commonly represented objects in Egyptology displays. Produced in huge numbers, ushabtis, along with scarabs, are the most numerous of all ancient Egyptian antiquities to survive. ==Etymology and usage of the terms== The term ''shabti'' applies to these figures prior to the Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt but after the end of the First Intermediate Period, and really only to those figurines inscribed with Chapter Six of the Book of the Dead. Otherwise, they might better be defined by the generic term, funerary figurines. The ''shabtis'' were servant figures that carried out the tasks required of the deceased in the underworld. The ushabtis were not effective because of their artistry; they were effective because of the inscriptions they bore, as a result of the Ancient Egyptian belief that anything written down was true. Writing was thought to change wishes and thoughts into actions. Therefore, it was necessary for the owner's name to be inscribed on an ushabti, along with a phrase sending them to action, written in the hieratic script.〔Taylor, Richard. "SHABTI (USHABTI, SHAWABTI)." Death and the Afterlife: a cultural encyclopedia. California: 2000.〕 The scribe Nebseni, the draughtsman in the Temple of Ptah, says, "Oh you shabti figure of the scribe Nebseni, son of the scribe Thena, and of the lady of the house Muthrestha, if I be called, or if I be judged to do any work whatever of the labours which are to be done in the underworld - behold, for your opposition will there be set aside – by a man in his turn, let the judgment fall upon you instead of upon me always, in the matter of sowing the fields, of filling the water-courses with water, and of bringing the sands of the east to the west." The ''shabti'' figure answers, "I am here and will come wherever you bid me." The ''shawabti'' were a distinct class of funerary figurines within the area of Thebes during the New Kingdom. The term ''ushabti'' became prevalent after the 21st Dynasty and remained in use until Ptolemaic times. It is thought by some that the term ''ushabti'' meant "follower" or "answerer" in Ancient Egyptian, because the figurine "answered" for the deceased person and performed all the routine chores of daily life for its master in the afterlife that the gods had planned for them.,〔Brier, ''op. cit.'', p.186〕 though it would be difficult to reconcile this derivation with the form of ''shawabti''.〔Wendy Doniger, ''Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions'', Merriam-Webster 1999, p.1121〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ushabti」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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