of blue glazed faience, shown mummiform, of good blue glaze, the features in applied black. Slim and handsomely proportioned, well modeled features and face with accented eyes and eyebrows, holding two hoes and carrying a seed basket at the back, wearing a tripartite striated wig. A single vertical column of text inscribed at the front, reads “The Osiris, Ta-shed-khonsu” - Ta-shed-khonsu meaning “she which has been rescued by Khonsu” (cf. Ranke 1935, Bd. I, 370 no. 14). Khnosu was worshipped as son of Amun and Mut at Thebes, so personal names including Khonsu were popular in this region. The name of the owner of the shabti Ta-shed-khonsu means “she which has been rescued by Khonsu” (cf. Ranke 1935, Bd. I, 370 no. 14).
In the 2nd cache of Deir el-Bahari, several shabtis belonging to a Ta-shed-khonsu were discovered that now reside at museums in Paris, Berlin, Cairo, Copenhagen, Florence, Istanbul, Madrid, Moscow etc. (Schneider 1977, Bd. I, S. 135 Taf. 52 (4.3.1.76); Aubert 1998, S. 98-99 Nr. 45). However, Hermann A. Schlögl and Andreas Brodbeck mention two shabti types for Ta-shed-khonsu that are of different design (Schlögl/Brodbeck 1990, S. 190-191 Nr. 116; S. 217 Nr. 141). Shabtis from the cache are light blue faience, taller, with short arms, and wearing black wigs or head cloths. Shabtis from the second find spot of Deir el-Medine are shorter with long, loop-shaped arms, tripartite wigs and deep blue faience, from which this example originates.
Deir el-Medine was a settlement for the workmen that built the tombs of the New Kingdom pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings. In the Graeco-Roman period, a temple for Hathor was erected there. Bruyère has found many shabtis of different persons in the necropolis of Deir el-Medine (Aubert/Aubert 1974, S. 175-176). The shabtis of Tashedkhonsu were discovered in the north of tomb 290 (Schlögl/Brodbeck 1990, 217).
Reference: Jacques-F. Aubert, Liliane Aubert: Statuettes égyptiennes. Chaouabtis, Ouchebtis, Paris 1974.
Liliane Aubert: Les statuettes funéraires de la Deuxième Cachette à Deir el-Bahari, Paris 1998.
Hermann Ranke: Die ägyptischen Personennamen, Glückstadt 1935.
Hermann A. Schlögl, Andreas Brodbeck: Ägyptische Totenfiguren aus öffentlichen und privaten Sammlungen der Schweiz (Oriens Biblicus et Orientalis Series Archaeologica 7), Freiburg (Schweiz) – Göttingen 1990.
Hans Schneider: Shabtis. An Introduction to the History of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Statuettes, Leiden 1977.
Dominique Valbelle: Ouchebtis de Deir el-Médineh (Documents de Fouilles XV), Cairo 1972.
Condition: Small mounting hole at base of feet, minor mineral deposits remain, intact and in very good condition overall.
Dimensions: Height 4 inches (10.2 centimeters)
Provenance: Private Dutch collection, excavated in Deir el-Medina, Egypt, 1922. See excavation reports recording the shabtis of Tashedkhonsu: B. Bruyère, Rapport sur les fouilles de Deir el Médineh, FIFAO I, 1 (1922-23), 66, 70, 75 ; FIFAO III, 3 (1924-25), 60 ; FIFAO IV, 3 (1926), 15, 17, 35 ; FIFAO VII, 2 (1929), 88, 100.
