Ushebti of Meret-it-es
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Das Geheimnis der Mumien - Ewiges Leben am Nil, Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim, June 22-November 30, 1997.
Aegyptien, Liebe, Wein und Unsterblichkeit, Rheingauer Weinmuseum, Broemserburg, Ruedesheim am Rhein, July 1-October. 31, 1998.
Mumien Graeber, Kostbarkeiten, Ausstellungszentrum Lokshuppen, Rosenheim, December 18, 1998–April 5, 1999.
Mumien fuer die Ewigkeit, Landesmuseum fuer Vorgeschichte, Dresden, August 12-December 5, 1999.
Search for Immortality, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Taiwan, March-July 2000.
The ancient Egyptian government sometimes required of its people hard communal agricultural work.
Concerned that such governments might exist in the hereafter, Egyptians created ushebtis to perform these tasks. As is clear on the large ushebtis, the figure's crossed left hand holds a pick to open hard ground; the right hand grips a hoe to mix clay for brick-making. Meret-it-es' name is on each ushebti; a long spell summoning them to work appears on the larger ones. (Ushebti appropriately means "responder.")
Meret-it-es was buried with 305 ushebtis. The 14 large ones supervised the 291 others. The small ushebtis are ordered here in three groups corresponding to the different arrangements of hieroglyphs on them. By careful observation, archaeologists have determined that one group of artists made the small ushebtis on the left; another group of artists made those on the right; two other groups made those in the middle.
Probably found in Hermopolis Magna [1];
Sayed Mohammad Khashaba (Pasha), Assiut, Egypt [2];
By inheritance to Osman Sayyed Khashaba, Assiut, Egypt, 1953-1972 [3];
Purchased from Khashaba, through Ahmad Fahmi Ali Fahmi, Cairo and Hagop Ohan Simonian, Cairo, by Münzen and Medaillen A.G., Basel, 1972;
Purchased from Münzen and Medaillen A.G. by Michael Emil, by 1976-December 31, 1998;
Purchased from Emil by Millenium Art Holdings Ltd., Jersey, Channel Islands, December 31, 1998-September 30, 2005;
Purchased from Millenium Art Holdings Ltd. by the dealers Noele and Ronald Mele, Westport, CT, September 30, 2005-2007;
Purchased from Noele and Ronald Mele by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2007.
NOTES:
[1] Based on hieroglyphs that appear on the front of the inner coffin.
[2] The provenance of the Meret-it-es Assemblage was presented by Millenium Art Holdings Ltd. in the District Court of Berlin in Berlin-Charlottenburg, November 15, 2005, reference number 9 O 511/05 and in the Superior Court in Berlin-Schöneberg, October 16, 2006, reference number 10 U 286/05.
[3] According to the documentation of the proceedings referenced in note 2, Osman Sayyed Khashaba gave Ahmad Fahmi Ali Fahmi power of attorney to sell the assemblage on his behalf on November 13, 1969. Ali Fahmi in turn granted a delegated power of attorney to Hagop Ohan Simonian on November 15, 1969 and contracted him to sell the objects.
Muzhou Pu, Search for Immortality: Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt (Taiwan: Tai bei shi, 2000), (10 of 14 overseers illustrated along with eight small ushebtis).
Michele R. K. Valentine, “Meretites Faience Ushebtis: An Analysis and Determination of their Production in a Late Period or Ptolemaic Workshop,” (Master’s Thesis, Kansas City, MO: University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2010).
Kathleen Garland, Johanna Bernstein, Joe Rogers, “Raising Meret-it-es: Examining and Conserving an Egyptian Anthropoid Coffin from 380-250 BCE,” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 54, 1 (2015), 102.
