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Shabti Shabti or Ushabti Ancient Egyptian; A funerary figurine, usually in the form of a mummy, which served as a dead man's deputy in order to do labor for him, mostly agricultural, in the afterlife. This term applies to these figures prior to the 21st Dynasty but after the end of the First Intermediate Period, and really only to figurines inscribed with chapter six of the Book of the Dead. Otherwise, they might better be defined by the generic term, funerary figurines. The Shabti counterparts after the 21st Dynasty were called Ushabti, and Shawabti (were a distinct class of funerary figurines within the area of Thebes during the New Kingdom). Shabti inscriptions contain the 6th chapter of the Book of the dead, translated as:- The NN speaks: "O, these shabtis, if one counts (me) off for (my) duties - now indeed an obstacle is implanted for (against) me there with -, as a man at his duties; if one counts off for you at any time which has be passed there make arable the fields, to turn over the shores, to transport by boat the sand of the West (and) of the East, 'here you are' you shall say. The spell is already known from the coffin text spell 472, which is found on some mid Twelfth Dynasty coffins from Bersheh (about 1850 BC). It is also known as chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead.
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