Egyptian, Third Intermediate Period, 21st Dynasty, ca. 1000 B.C.

Faience

H: 15 cm

PROVENANCE: First cache, Deir el Bahri, Egypt, 1881 (according to the inscribed base); Ex - Joel L. Malter collection, Encino, California, 1979; Ex- US private collection.

SERIAL NO: 28491

This ushabti belongs to the adoratrice Henuttawy, daughter of Pinodjem I and his wife Queen Henuttawy (same name as her daughter), and sister of Maatkare.

The Divine Adoratrice was a prestigious title initially given to royal women in order to facilitate the transfer of power from one pharaoh to the next. During the days of Theban theocracy, instead, this office served for the dynastic succession of the high priest of Amun. As a high priestess and earthly spouse of the god Amun, the Divine Adoratrice also ruled over the extensive temple duties and domains, controlling an important part of the ancient Egyptian economy. 

The significance of the office is attested by the fact that Henuttawy’s name and title are written inside a royal cartouche. 

Henuttawy may have held her office until the accession to power of the Lybians around 940 BC. Sheshonq I (ca. 943-922 BC) terminated the hereditary succession of the high priesthood of Amun at Thebes. 

Henuttawy’s existence is only known from her shabtis, which first appeared around 1845. According to Aubert they were possibly found in a 22nd Dynasty cemetery within the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple of Ramses II.

Depicted mummiform, bright blue in color, with details in black, including the eyes and brows, a fillet in her hair and a hoe in each of her fisted hands, with six rows of hieroglyphs, reading: "Instructions of the Osiris, the Divine Adoratress Henut-tawy, She says: 'O these shabty!" and continuing with a form of the standard shabti text from Chapter 6 of The Book of the Dead.