Statuette of Tutankhamun on a Funerary Bed

A statuette of Tutankhamun that depicted the king mummified in the Osiride position with his hands crossed over his chest. He is lying on a funerary bed decorated with two lion’s heads and is wearing the nemes headdress with a gilded uraeus on the forehead.

A falcon and a bird with a human head protect the sides and the torso of the king with their open wings. The falcon is the god Horus and the bird is the Ba, the animated manifestation of the deceased.

Statuette of Tutankhamun on a Funerary Bed
Statuette of Tutankhamun on a Funerary Bed

The tomb of Tutankhamun had 413 shabtis, varying greatly in size, detail, material, and quality: 365 workmen (one for every day of the year); 36 overseers (one per Egyptian 10-day week); and 12 directors (one for every month of the year).

The statuette was found carefully wrapped in linen cloth with several miniature agricultural tools similar to those provided for the ushabtis. The inscriptions on the statuette are a dedication by Maya, Tutankhamun’s scribe, who gave the king a ushabti.

Statuettes of this type were placed in tombs to serve the deceased in the afterlife and to substitute for him if he should be required to perform manual labor in the Fields of Aaru (also known as the Fields of Reeds), the Egyptian idea of the heavenly paradise.

From the Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62), Valley of the Kings. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 60720