"Here I Am": The Global Shabti Project

Title: "Here I Am": The Global Shabti Project

Speaker: Meg Gundlach

Abstract:

Shabtis are one of the most prolific and recognisable artefact types from ancient Egypt. For nearly 2000 years (c. 2000–30 BCE), shabtis were considered a burial necessity by the elite, and surviving numbers are minimally in the hundreds of thousands. These items are now found in every known public and private collection, with individual sets scattered across the globe. Very often, these are the only remaining attestations of ancient individuals, but they are frequently overlooked in scholarship due to their dispersal and haphazard cataloguing. Anyone wishing to study these objects must first virtually reunite sets, starting each inquiry from scratch.

The Global Shabti Project is a multi-phased undertaking to create a dynamic web-based hub to support and advance the study of Ancient Egyptian shabtis. This initial phase focused on the creation and development of the site, including several specialised search functions to facilitate research at all levels. This presentation will serve as the launch of the Global Shabti Project website, which will become an essential tool for shabti research.

Speaker:

Dr. Meg Gundlach is the Director of the Global Shabti Project (GSP). She is the former Collections Access Manager of the Egypt Centre, Swansea University. Her association with the museum began in 2006 when she arrived in Swansea as a Postgraduate student—her very first paper was a lifecycle of the object W161 (a shabti of Pedamenope), which sparked the topic of her PhD and ongoing research. She has worked on multiple sites across Egypt and Sudan as an Object Registrar and Archaeologist.

Tickets:

This event will take place both in-person and on Zoom.

Online tickets for this event cost £3, with proceeds going to support the Egypt Centre. Upon booking, you will receive an automated email from Eventbrite with a link to the Zoom event. If you have not received this within 24 hours of booking, please contact Ken at k.griffin@swansea.ac.uk

In-person tickets for this event cost £3 and can be purchased at the door. The lecture will take place in the Taliesin Mall Room (Swansea University).

If you are a member of the Friends of the Egypt Centre, you will automatically be sent the Zoom link to attend.