Body of Queen Sesheshet Found in New Pyramid
The pyramid was discovered in November last year and since then Egyptian archaeologists have been excavating the pyramid looking for confirmation that this pyramid did in fact belong to Sesheshet.
Yesterday her sarcophagus was found but it was void of inscriptions. Even so, other evidence indicates that it contains the body of Teti’s mother, queen Sesheshet.
“Although they did not find the name of the queen buried in the pyramid, all the signs indicate that she is Seshestet, the mother of King Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty,” – said Zahi Hawass.
Interestingly, the two ‘pin holes’ used to secure the sacrcophagus lid are unusually large, as can be seen in the accompanying image. The sarcophagus is thought to weigh in at around six tons.
The team took five hours to lift the heavy granite lid and once the lid was removed human remains were found lying inside. These remains consist of a skull, legs, pelvis and other body parts, once wrapped in linen.
The tomb had been previously robbed, evidenced by a vertical shaft dug through the top of the pyramid. Even though the sarcophagus had been breached gold finger wrappings were still found inside. Pottery was also found, perhaps remnants of offering vessels. According to one source, Dr Hawass stated that gold coins inscribed with heiroglyphs were found.
The find is a very significant one as it is one of the few royal bodies found belonging to the Old Kingdom. Queen Sesheshet was the mother of Teti, the first pharaoh of the 6th Dynasty who ruled from 2323 to 2291 BC.
Sources: Reuters, Inquirer, BBC, Bloomberg
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Tags: Saqqara, sarcophagus, sesheshet, teti
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Excellent post – This is a great discovery, this is going to be an epic year in Egypt.
BBC have got it too
(I was in the process of e-mailing you the story when you put this post up1)
Thanks Geoff.
Last year was an amazing year for Saqqara alone. There was the rediscovery of Menkauhor’s pyramid, and Sesheshet’s pyramid right next to that. There were the tombs recently discovered just to the west of Unas’s pyramid one of which belonged to the man responsible for gathering much of the stone used in the construction of Unas’s pyramid.
Also, the discovery of statues and sarcophgii by the mission led by Egyptologist Christiane Ziegler, the coffins found in the tombs of senior officials of the 18th and 19th dynasties, the discovery of coloured unopened coffins dating back to the sixth century BC as well as some coffins dating back to the time of Ramses II.
There was the sophisticated laser scanning of Djoser’s great step pyramid to create a 3D model, and let us not forget the Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project who claimed to be on the verge of discovering Imhotep’s tomb!
I’ll be suprised of 2009 can top that!
- VOC will probably take the head lines, – I know its not pyramids, but queen Sesheshet is good start.
Any idea what ‘gold coins’ are?
As I said on Tim’s blog where you also commented, coins were not even used in this period. I am not sure what is being referred to here. The deben is the only thing that comes close, which were weighted peices. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see when more information is released about this. I think the same source referred to “golden rings” which are probably referrences to the gold toe/finger sheathes.
Hans has some great examples of these from the wives of King Thutmose III.
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Nice link, very beautiful objects, thanks