The mixing of cultures throughout the Mediterranean, especially in coastal cities and towns, is evident throughout Sicily. Record of such are these “ushabti” housed in the G. Whitaker Museum on Mozia near Marsala. Ushabti are funerary figurines that were common in Ancient Egypt. Buried with the dead, they represent servants or serfs for the deceased who are ready to perform manual labor and other tasks on behalf of the deceased in the afterlife. These pictured, which were unearthed from Mozia’s necropolis, are dated to be from between the 7th and 6th centuries, B.C., the Phoenician period. Hundreds of ushabti have been found in necropolises throughout Sicily.
