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Shabtis from the Hellenistic and Roman periods: the problem of the previous typologies and a proposal for a new classification

In the previous publications shabti figures usually were dated from the First Intermediate period to the end of Ptolemaic Dynasty, and in the Roman shabtis almost did not exist. This common funerary figures changed their shapes, forms, texts and position of agricultural implements a lot during history. These changes were previously classified in various typologies during 20th century (L. Speleers (1923), W. M. F. Petrie (1935), J. Monnet Saleh (1970), J. F. Aubert (1974), H. Schneider (1977), and the recent project of the Société d’Égyptologie Geneve) but chronologically these classifications mostly included shabtis until the end of Late period (30th Dynasty) or eventually the Ptolemaic Dynasty. The only previous typology which included the Hellenistic shabties was made by H. Schneider, but he included all of them in two main groups (XI: from the 26th Dynasty to the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and XII: Unconvential forms from the same era). By the time of Ptolemaic Dynasty the main role of shabtis almost disappeared and since then they became one of the cultic symbols of so-called “Isaic circle of divinities” (Isis, Osiris, Serapis, Harpocrates, Anubis, Bes etc.) which first penetrated shores of the East Mediterranean, North Africa and Southeast Europe and later during the Roman Empire they spread to the Roman limes at the north and beyond of that “line”. Shabtis were trade as one of the Egyptian cultic symbols ; they were manufactured in Egypt but also in various workshops in main cultic centres in the Roman provinces. These shabtis are not the same as previous one. In the various museum catalogue around the world they are commonly classified as “fakes” which are, in my opinion, definitely not. Maybe they look strange, have false hieroglyphic inscriptions etc. but they are not fakes in the modern sense of that word. They are more likely “ancient copies of the original shabtis” made for different usage – to be used as symbol of “Isaic divinites”. Such shabtis deserve to be re-interpreted as one of the main sources for diffusion of the Egyptian deities. That is why they need to be finally properly classified. During my paper I will present one of the possible solutions of the new typology which now classify shabtis from the Graeco-Roman times into nine main groups (two types E and G can be dated from the 27th to the Ptolemaic Dynasty ; six types from H to M were crafted during the Roman Empire) with examples from the various museums around the world.

shabtis; Hellenistic and Roman periods; previous classifications (typologies); preposal of a new typology.

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