About this lot

Description

An Egyptian faience Shapti (of Horwedja), a priest of the goddess Neith, 30th dynasty (380 - 343BC), with striped wig and plaited beard, a hoe in the left hand and a mattock in the right with a grain basket hanging over the right shoulder on a rope, the body inscribed with hieroglyphics with a spell from chapter 6 book of the dead, the foot with contemporary waxed cotton label, 'Ushapti, from the tomb of Horwita, Egyptian noble about 600BC, see book pages 92 and 93', 23cm (9in)
Provenance: Given as a gift to the current vendor from the archaeologist Raymond Inskeep (1926 - 2003) Other Notes: This particular Shapti was probably part of a collection of 399 found by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, FRS, FBA, commonly known as Flinders Petrie, in 1890 in the Faiyum region of Egypt, the tomb housed the best preserved and highest quality group of funerary figures known, much of the original colour has been lost due to water damage as the tomb was flooded. Examining other letters from 'Flinders Petrie', the hand writing on this label appears very similar and is thus most probably written in his hand. Raymond Inskeep came to archaeology later in life and after serving in the latter part of the Second World War in Egypt and Palestine, he developed a love of archaeology and later won a scholarship to St John's College Cambridge. After graduating, he went to Africa to study rock art sites in Tanzania, then he had a spell as assistant lecturer at Cambridge, then later took up a position in Cape Town as a lecturer in ethnology and archaeology (where he would stay for 12 years). His research and determination to properly organise South African archaeology made him one of the major figures in this field. In 1972 he settled in Oxford where he helped set up the Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Research Centre and also worked at the Pitt Rivers museum.

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