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Pharaoh Teti II (approx. 2297–2287) was apparently married to more women than was previously known.
That is at least proven by a new find in the great ancient Egyptian necropolis of Sakkara 20 kilometers south of Cairo.
A real complex has now been discovered there not far from the mortuary temple of Teti, which was dedicated to a previously unknown Queen Naert.
This throws a spotlight on the last dynasty of the so-called Old Kingdom (approx. 2640–2166), at the end of which the Nile land sank into chaos for several generations.
The find is one of a whole list of new discoveries in Saqqara that has now been presented by the Ministry of Antiquities in Cairo.
Among them are 50 sarcophagi, death masks and board games as well as a four-meter-long papyrus with a chapter from the book of the dead, which was given to those who died in ancient Egypt for orientation in the afterlife.
The numerous artefacts prove once again what treasures the huge necropolis hides, which has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979.
One of the newly discovered sarcophagi
Source: AFP
Most of the pieces are dated to the time of the New Kingdom (approx. 1540-1070).
But Saqqara on the west bank of the Nile was used as an entrance to the realm of the dead more than a thousand years earlier.
The monumental step pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser, who from 2640 BC onwards, is best known.
BC the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt succeeded.
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Since 2010, excavations have been carried out in the ruins that extend in the vicinity of the Teti pyramid.
"We haven't found a name in the pyramid that tells us who it once belonged to," the prominent archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who from 2011 was also Egypt's minister of antiquities, is quoted as saying.
The current campaign made it clear that there is a stone temple and three adobe warehouses in which offerings and tools were housed.
A month ago the team discovered the needle in the haystack.
The name “Naert” was found on a wall and on an obelisk.
"I had never heard of this queen before," Hawass said in an interview.
"That is why we are adding an important piece of the puzzle about this queen to Egyptian history."
Some of the recovered sarcophagi are assigned by the scientists to the members of a cult that apparently served to worship the pharaoh Teti.
Further research will have to show whether this was able to survive the historical cuts after the fall of the Old Kingdom.
"I had never heard of this queen": Zahi Hawass (born 1947) in Saqqara
Source: AFP
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Pharaoh Teti II is generally considered to be the founder of the 6th Dynasty.
He sat on the throne of Egypt for around ten years.
So far we knew of two legitimate women whose tombs and mortuary temples were also built in the vicinity of their husband in Saqqara.
Naert must now be added to the well-known queens Iput and Chuit.
After Teti became the victim of a palace conspiracy, a usurpation probably shook the country before his son Pepi I (approx. 2285–2235) took over the scepter.
During his long reign the signs of decline increased.
Old trade contacts broke off, a campaign in Lebanon ended in a catastrophe, and numerous guest princes became self-employed.
“Ultimately, the administrative apparatus paralyzed completely and was no longer able to guarantee the country's supply of food and everyday necessities,” writes the Egyptologist Hermann A. Schlögl.
After a few insignificant rulers, the so-called First Intermediate Period (2166-2120) began.
Workers in Saqqara, in the background the distinctive step pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser
Source: AFP
The new finds in Saqqara are to be exhibited in the Great Egyptian Museum, which is being built not far from the pyramids of Giza and which will open this year and give tourism a new boost.
In November, the Minister of Antiquities, Chalid al-Anani, declared that Saqqara had only released "around one percent" of what was hidden there.
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