Here I Am: Afterlife of Senkamanisken’s Shabti

‘Here I Am: Afterlife of Senkamanisken’s Shabti’ is located on the ground floor of the Allard Pierson and has been created by the students of the MA Museum Studies University of Amsterdam (UvA) in collaboration with the Allard Pierson. The Allard Pierson’s recent acquisition, a shabti of the Nubian King Senkamanisken is the first and the only funerary figurine representing a Nubian King in the Allard Pierson collection.

King Senkamanisken ruled the ancient Nubian Kingdom of Kush from 643-623 BC in the Nile region, today’s Sudan. As representations of the deceased, shabtis were meant to perform the work of the deceased in the afterlife. The students discuss perspectives related to the object’s biography, ranging from its excavation in colonial times to its context within Western museums. Today’s approaches acknowledge these histories as inseparable from questions of race, ethnicity and climate in the Nubian context. Accompanying the exhibition will be an online catalogue and podcast discussing the multiple meanings of the shabti of King Senkamanisken, which are of relevance for the current perception of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology.

This is the result of the yearly collaboration between the MA Museum Studies and the Allard Pierson. The Allard Pierson is the museum and knowledge institute for the heritage collections of the University of Amsterdam. From the exhibition to the educational program and communications, the students work in different teams to create an exhibition about an object selected by the Allard Pierson and explore the different aspects involved in exhibition-making, with valuable guidance from their coordinator and the Allard Pierson experts.

Petra Huijgen