The present study aims to present a special part of the pieces from the collections of the ³Vasile Pârvan´ Institute of Archaeology of Bucharest, that is the ancient Egyptian funerary fgurines (shabti/shawabti/ushabti) coming from the antiquarian donations. While there were some early attempts at doing preliminary descriptions of some of the objects of this Nind, hitherto this is the frst in-depth study which investigates on multiple levels these funerary fgurines. The Romanian antiquarian collections including ancient Egyptian artifacts and now belonging to the ³Vasile Pârvan´ Institute of Archaeology are dated around the middle of the 19th century. The beginning was made by the National Museum of Antiquities of Bucharest, founded in 1864 by the Prince Alexandru Ioan Cu]a. According to the 1906 catalogue of the National Museum of Antiquities in Bucharest published by its director, archaeologist Grigore G. Tocilescu, in the cabinet no. 3 in Hall No. 1, also named Mavros Hall, on seven boards there were cult objects from the following collections (chronologically): General Nicolae Mavros, Ce]ar Bolliac, Earl Scarlat Rosetti, Mihail .ogălniceanu, and Procopie Casotti. Among these, Tocilescu recorded 151 Egyptian objects to which he gave brief descriptions but upon closer observation most of these descriptions turned out to be rather inaccurate. Also, he provided no further details about these pieces belonging to the respective collections except those at positions 29-40, donated by Procopie Casotti in 1890. It is Nnown that the Mavros donation included a small si]e collection of Egyptian antiquities (including scarabs, statuettes, amulets, and liNely a fragment of basalt sarcophagus). Colonel Dimitrie Papa]oglu made also an important donation of a rich archaeological material which, according to the inventory of donations, included a number of Egyptian pieces. Other signifcant donations of Egyptian antiquities made in the second half of the 19th century included those of Scarlat Rosetti, Nicolae .ret]ulescu, captain I. Horovit] (Orovet]). After 1906 the fund of Egyptian objects has increased due to the additions from the collections Len܈, Solacolu, Sut]u, Orghidan (the Romanian Academy collection). Currently, there is a fund of 151 Egyptian objects in the collections of the ³Vasile Pârvan´ Institute of Archaeology of Bucharest. The pieces come from various antiquarian private collections, and cover different Ninds of media and styles: lapidarium; ceramic and alabaster vessels; plastic (statuettes of mummiform or predominantly mummiform funerary servants – of shabti/shawabti/ushabti type and fragments of shabti mummiform legs); bron]e statuettes (representing ]oomorphic gods); integral or fragmentary anthropomorphic and ]oomorphic statuettes of deities, having mainly funerary destination, as well as magical and religious one; scarabs; amulets with funerary destination, in mummiform context; of mummiform and cultic context type; adornments (necNlaces; bead/ axle disN); Àint pieces; mummies of birds and a fragment of a human mummy (the hand of a woman with a scarab ring), as well as ecofacts (a septarian spheroidal geological formation or a septarian nodule, very similar to a scarab; carcasses of dates). The collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts of the ³Vasile Pârvan´ Institute of Archaeology of Bucharest includes 31 funerary fgurines of the shabti/shawabti/ushabti type, to which is added one shabtiw container covering a period extending from the New .ingdom to the Ptolemaic period. Needless to say, being purchased from dealers by the aforementioned collectors, the history comprising the way of acquisition and the provenance of these 31 funerary fgurines also still remains unNnown. The author’s approach is to put in concordance the results of Egyptological research about funerary fgurines with the information obtained from the analysis of the thirty-one pieces in the collections of the ³Vasile Pârvan´ Institute of Archaeology. This is why the study contains detailed pictures of each fgurine, particularly because a substantial part of them have hieroglyphic inscriptions. Although extensive, the present study is just the frst part of a much larger volume which will include the detailed catalogue descriptions of all Egyptian pieces in the collections of the ³Vasile Pârvan´ Institute of Archaeology. The author s aim is to provide an accurate description as detailed as possible of each object, to integrate it from a historical, chronological, societal and stylistic point of view in the wider frameworN of the ancient Egyptian artifacts of the same type and, as far as possible, to identify the original owners (the ancient Egyptian ones) of these funerary goods and to contribute to the reconstitution of their funerary treasure, and by means of this, of their role and status in the ancient Egyptian society. Last but not least, another goal would be the identifcation of the route of origin of the antiquarian type of acquisition. The study is structured in two main parts, starting from general to specifc. The frst part is a synthetic presentation of the funeral components as guarantors of immortality and of the history of the funerary statuettes of shabti/shawabti/ ushabti type. This section is essential for understanding of the role of the funerary fgurines of this Nind in the ancient Egyptian society. The second one is a catalogue of the funerary fgurines of this type in the ³Vasile Pârvan´ Institute of Archaeology of Bucharest. To integrate them into the general existing typology, two criteria of classifcation of the fgurines were followed: the chronology and the presence or the absence on their bodies of any inscription. In this way the details of each piece will give scientists deeper insights into their specifc history and integrate them into the general typology.

Keywords: Shabti, shawabti, ushabti, funerary fgurine, ancient Egypt, ³Vasile Pârvan´ Institute of Archaeology, New kingdom, Third Intermediate Period, Late Period, Ptolemaic Period, tomb, immortality, afterlife, mummiform, Osiris, sehedj