A Czech team working at Abousir near Saqqara has found the tomb of a previously unknown ancient Egyptian queen, writes Zahi Hawass
A Czech expedition directed by Miroslav Barta recently made a great discovery at the site of Abousir, to the south of the Giza Pyramids and between the Pyramids and Saqqara.
Abousir is the site of the “forgotten pyramids,” and the Czech expedition has been working there for many years, first under Miroslav Verner, and now under Barta. Last month it found a tomb at Saqqara recording for the first time the name of a queen. Her name is Khent-kawes, but we know of two other queens named Khent-kawes.
Khent-kawes I is known from Giza, where Egyptologist Selim Hassan found her tomb in 1932-1933. Some scholars believe that this Khent-kawes ruled at the end of Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, between the pharaohs Khafre and Menkaure. Her tomb is unique for a queen, and its construction may be evidence that she actually ruled in her own right.
It consists of a huge mastaba that caused Hassan, its excavator, to designate it as a fourth pyramid of Giza. The tomb, which had a boat located near its southwest corner, is associated with a settlement that may have housed the priests who maintained the cult of the queen after her death.
This is the oldest such settlement to be found in Egypt, and the tomb is also associated with a structure that could be a valley temple. The settlement is surrounded by an enclosure wall.
The title of the queen was Mother of the Two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt, and these may have been kings of the Fifth Dynasty. It is also possible that this title can be read as two separate titles, as the Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt and Mother of the Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Showing posts with label Neferirkare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neferirkare. Show all posts
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Two reliefs stolen from Egypt's Hetepka tomb found
Two ancient
limestone Egyptian reliefs stolen from Hetepka tomb in Saqqara were recovered
today
By Nevine
El-Aref , Saturday 15 Oct 2011
The Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Police have succeeded in recovering two well-preserved limestone reliefs stolen in 1986 by an international antiquities smuggling gang from Saqqara archaeological storehouses.
The objects belong to the Fifth Dynasty tomb of the king's royal hairdresser Hetepka, discovered by British archaeologists Geoffrey Martin in the late 1960’s at the Old Kingdom cemetery at Saqqara necropolis.
Although several members of the gang were caught in 2002 and sent to prison, among them the gang’s mastermind, Jonathan Tokeley-Parry and his partner, British antiquities trader Frederick Schultz, the four objects they stole had not been recovered.
Two of the objects have been found.
Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Mostafa Amine said that both recovered items are limestone reliefs engraved with ancient Egyptian decorations and hieroglyphic texts. The first one, he continued, is a rectangular shaped relief of 100 centimetres in height and 60 centimetres in width. It depicts four geese and is decorated with hieroglyphic text.
The second relief, Amine pointed out, is engraved with three lines of hieroglyphic text written vertically as well as the cartouches of two of the Fifth Dynasty kings Sahure and Neferirkare.
Atef Abul Dahab, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the SCA explained that following the trial of Tokeley-Parry and Schultz, Egypt reported the missing objects to Interpol, who is still looking for the other two reliefs that depict scenes of Egypt’s wildlife along with hieroglyphic text.
Abul Dahab told Ahram Online that the two newly recovered objects are now in storage awaiting restoration.
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