A Note on Modern (Fake) Shabtis as Tourist Art

Abstract

This brief communication is a discussion of several styles of shabti figures identified during the National Museums Scotland review of Egyptian material in Scottish collections. The shabtis’ combination of historical styles, nonsensical inscriptions and material composition clearly characterize them as modern productions, despite several recent publications identifying them as Roman Period pseudo-shabtis. This brief communication seeks to address this interpretation and re-establish them as pervasive examples of Egyptian tourist art from the late nineteenth to early/mid-twentieth centuries.