Takelot¹

Upper fragment of a mummiform statuette, showing the facial features, ears, and a tripartite wig. At the back, the wig is smooth. The arms are crossed over the chest, left over right. The clenched hands would have held agricultural tools, no longer visible today. The piece exhibits various material losses on its surface.

This piece was acquired from a private individual²

Among the various royal tombs discovered by the French archaeologist Pierre Montet in Tanis, Lower Egypt, in 1939, is the tomb of Pharaoh Takelot I. For years it was thought that the pharaoh discovered in the Tanite necropolis was Takelot II, but later research ruled out that possibility. Today it is widely assumed that the Pharaoh Takelot found in Tanis is the son of Osorkon I and Queen Tashedkhonsu, and is therefore, indeed, Takelot I, fourth pharaoh of the XXII Dynasty, also called the Bubastite Dynasty, having originated in Bubastis, Lower Egypt. The Bubastite pharaohs belong to the Berber tribe of the Meshwesh, who would control the Egyptian throne for 200 years. The Berber or Amazigh calendar begins, precisely, with the accession to the throne of Pharaoh Sheshonq I. The shabti fragment therefore belongs to an Amazigh pharaoh³.

The shabtis of Pharaoh Takelot I are grouped into two distinct series: the first shows a classic appearance similar to the shabtis of the New Kingdom, with well-designed tripartite wigs tied with a hairband (no other Bubastite king of the 22nd Dynasty uses the seshed, the Egyptian name for the band); the second series includes more diverse shabtis, with curly headdresses and very realistic facial details. The one shown here belongs to the first series.