Requires Photography

Shawabty of King Taharqa

Napatan Period, reign of Taharqa
690–664 B.C.



Overall: 32.5 x 12 cm (12 13/16 x 4 3/4 in.)

Accession Number


Medium or Technique

Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)

Not On View


The Ancient World


Shawabties and shawabty boxes

This is a shawabty belonging to King Taharqa. The figure wears a bulging bag (khat) headdress with uraeus and has a long beard. Here the hands are opposed resting on the chest. In each hand the figure holds a hoe and a cord to a small bag slung over each shoulder. The hoe on the right has a narrow blade and the one on the left has a broad blade. The seed bags are typically incised with diagonal crossed lines forming a diamond pattern, but the detail on the back has been entirely eroded. There are ten horizontal lines of incised unframed text on the front of body which do not extend to the back of the figure, and they are eroded below the fourth row of text. The object was broken in two pieces and is not mended. This mummiform shape does not have a back pillar or base. The chin and beard are badly chipped.



From Nubia (Sudan) Nuri, Pyramid 1 (Tomb of Taharqa) A IV 1. From Nubia (Sudan), Nuri, Pyramid 1(tomb of King Taharqa). March 1917: excavated by the Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Expedition; assigned to the MFA by the government of Sudan.

Credit Line

Harvard University—Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition