The Case of the Third Intermediate Period ‘Shabti-Maker (?) of the Amun Domain’ Diamun / Padiamun and the Change in Conception of Shabti Statuettes *

Abstract

This article is divided into two main sections: the first presents considerations inspired by a detailed stylistic, typological, and philological analysis of a previously unpublished shabti box preserved in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and inscribed for the ‘shabti-maker/priest of the Amun domain’, Diamun or Padiamun. The particular shape of the box is potentially linked to a transitional phase in burial customs of the Third Intermediate Period and a change in the shape and meaning of shabti statuettes. Hence, the second part of the article attempts to shed new light on the world of shabti statuettes, which in modern Egyptology represent an incoherent ensemble, grouping together at the same time the owner/deceased and the working servant.