Students within the College of Arts and Law have been working on the new ‘Shabti Translation Project’, which aims to examine the inscriptions of shabtis currently on loan to the University of Birmingham from the Eton Myers collection, bequeathed to Eton College (see the ‘Virtual Museum’ section for further details of previous research and exhibitions related to this collection).
From a range of over 50 shabti figures, students are working through the inscribed examples to provide further commentary on their text, epigraphy, style, and further connect this to what is known about the object’s archaeological context and provenance.
The project has begun a range of interesting examples, including a high-quality shabti of the female figure Tayuheret from the 21st Dynasty (ECM 397), a shabti with an unusual pose and dressed in the clothes of daily life (ECM 383), and finally a broken shabti of unknown date or provenance (ECM 158).
As our work continues, we hope to share our progress through this site and through the Eton Myers collection database. Any students within UoB who are interested in joining us and working with these ancient objects, get in touch!
