Definition of "ushabti" [ushabti]

• In ancient Egypt, a figurine of a dead person, placed in their tomb to do their work for them in the afterlife. (noun)

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• "I have previously read that there was some very early evidence of human sacrifice in ancient Egypt, but it was something that the Egyptians evidently decided against quite early on in their dynastic development, turning instead to the original and clever invention of "substitutes" by way of ushabti dolls, carved and molded miniatures and artful tomb paintings."
• "But there is a fragmentary funerary figurine or ushabti (possiby an early nineteenth-century find from KV20) and some pieces of her wooden coffin."
• "Nicholas hung up, and went to the door, but suddenly he turned back and picked up the the Taita ushabti from the desk."