Box for Shabties
Description
Object Label: The box inscribed for a priest named Ankhef[en]khons once contained small figurines, known as shabties. These figurines (on view in the nearby gallery) were intended to perform tasks for the deceased in the afterlife. Because the number of shabties in a tomb could reach into the hundreds, the figurines were commonly deposited in shrine-shaped containers, such as this one. Caption: Box for Shabties, ca. 1075–656 B.C.E.. Wood, pigment , 16 7/8 x 20 3/8 x 13 in. (42.8 x 51.7 x 33 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1524E. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Wooden box with hieroglyphic inscriptions on its surface.
The artifact is a small, wooden box showing signs of age with a rectangular shape. Its surface features a prominent panel of hieroglyphic inscriptions. The box appears to have a utilitarian design with minimal decorative elements beyond the inscriptions. The hieroglyphs are neatly arranged, though the surface shows wear indicative of its age.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.1524E tier-2
- BKM-Object 118052 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.