Talk:Ushabti
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[edit] Merge with Shabti article
This page really should be merged with the article Shabti. We don't need them both, and Shabti seems to be a bit more authoritative. As a newby (how long can I go on calling myself that?) I'm not sure how to do this. I tried looking at the instructions for deletions and redirects, but they're pretty Byzantine and I ran out of time before I managed to figure it all out (I'm doing this on my lunch break). -- CKA3KA (Skazka) 20:24, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
- When I first started adding info to Shabti/Ushabti, I didn't know the other page existed. I now know from the data on the pages, and some other various, lighter sources, that these two item "categories" of the "shawabti", covers two different time periods. Not being an expert in Egyptology, I can offer no further information. I created "Category:Egyptian artefact types", when I was barely learning Wikipedia. Only recently did a new page get added: Rods of ancient Egypt, by someone else.
- I did recently look at the Adze page (to be added to Category). It doesn't even mention the time frame of the Pyramids, when the adze was used, nor later its many representations in "Egyptian art" settings (or as an "artefact type"). Nor does it mention that the adze is a hieroglyph. At any rate, the Shabti page begins to explain the history, (of Ushabti).
- Until someone who knows the "artefact type" better, I think it should stay as is. Enuff said.Michael McAnnisMmcannis 02:19, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
The Shabti and Ushabti are different figurines in Ancient Egypt. The two articles should be kept separate. Leoboudv 06:24, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
As far as I'm aware, Ushabti and Shabti are merely different ways of saying the same thing in two seperate languages - Ushabti is generally considered more authentic, Shabti more Anglicised. For that reason I think one should divert to the other. The taxonomy of both is the same - mummiform funerary artefacts - and any definitive page to which either word diverts should contain the information from both current sections.
Merge: I had thought that they were simply different spelling variations for the same thing, but according to this they are different (though I'd like to track down a print reference to confirm that). Despite this, I would prefer merging the contents into a single article, since the difference in name seems to relate to when and where they were made, rather than being functionally different. The fine distinction is likely to be lost to more casual readers and contributors, and merging them into a single article would at least explain that.
For what it is worth, I would merge the content from the Shabti article with Ushabti, since that seems to be the more common form of the word in English. Google get 33,600 hits for the word "Shabti", and "48,000" for "Ushabti" (and for the record, only 9,520 for "Shawabti"). Captmondo 23:55, 8 October 2007 (UTC)
- Checking Feature story ushabti which I tend to take seriously, says that "while all three are often indiscriminately and incorrectly used, each designation has historical limits to its usage, and in particular, shawabti was restricted geographically to Deir el-Medina and other areas of Thebes." but that "in many cases, only the title and name of the deceased was inscribed upon these figures and therefore referring to all such figures as ushabti, shabti or shawbti is wrong. Hence, the designation of "funerary figurines" is at least accurate for all types in all periods.
- "Both the spellings of shabti and shawabti appear in early versions of these figures, but the latter term was restricted to the strange stick figures from the Theban area. However, it is probably a dialectical variant and is the least preferable of the three spellings for the general references to these figures."
- But I agree, merge into Ushabti and we can point out the difference in spelling. I think giving the hieroglyph variants will satisfy any critics. No reason to have separate articles, even if they are technically not the same. Jeff Dahl 01:31, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
