Археологчид Каираас өмнө зүгт орших Саккарагийн булшны бүсэд 4000 жилийн турш нэр нь тодорхойгүй байсан хатан хааны пирамид болон шинэ хаант улсын үед хамаарах олон зуун олдвор илрүүлжээ.
Египет судлаач Захи Хавассаар ахлуулсан баг 2010 онд хаан Тетигийн пирамидын дэргэдээс нэгэн жижиг пирамид олсон боловч тухайн үед эзэмшигчийг нь тогтоох боломжгүй байв. Арван жилийн дараа уг пирамидын сүмээс олдсон бичээсүүд болон унасан багана дээрх нэрсийг судалсны дүнд энэ нь МЭӨ 2323-2291 оны орчимд төр барьж байсан хаан Тетигийн гэргий, хатан хаан Нейтийн бунхан болохыг тогтоожээ. Энэхүү нээлт нь түүхийн хуудаснаас алга болсон хатан хааныг эргэн танихад чухал ач холбогдолтой болсон юм.
Тус бүс нутагт хийсэн малтлагаар хаан Тетигийн пирамидыг тойрсон 22 гүнзгий булшны нүх илэрсэн бөгөөд тэдгээрээс МЭӨ 1550-1186 оны үед хамаарах, шинэ хаант улсын үеийн олон зуун модон авс олджээ. Хаан Тетиг нас барсных нь дараа бурханчлан шүтэж байсан нь хойч үеийнхэн түүний ойр орчимд оршуулагдахыг эрмэлзэх гол шалтгаан болсон гэж судлаачид үзэж байна. Булшнуудаас “Үхэгсдийн ном”-ын хэсгүүд, “Сенет” тоглоомын хэрэгсэл, модон завь, Озирис болон Птах-Сокарын баримлууд зэрэг хойд насны амьдралд зориулсан эд зүйлс олдсон байна.
Малтлагын явцад олдсон олдворуудын дунд алтан багтай эмэгтэйн мумми болон Пукхаеф хэмээх хүний нэр бичээстэй дөрвөн метр урт папирус, мөн түүний нэр бүхий модон авс, шабти хэмээх жижиг баримлууд илэрчээ. Түүнчлэн цэргийн тэрэг хариуцсан түшмэл Хапта болон түүний гэргий Мвтемвиа нарын дүрс бүхий шохойн чулуун хөшөө олдсон нь тухайн үеийн нийгмийн байдал болон гэр бүлийн харилцааг тодруулах баримт болсон юм. Судалгаагаар зарим муммид Газар дундын тэнгисийн удамшлын халууралт өвчний шинж тэмдэг илэрсэн нь эртний хүмүүсийн эрүүл мэндийн байдлыг судлахад үнэ цэнтэй мэдээлэл болж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
For more than 4,000 years, her name had lain in the sand, carved into an obelisk that had toppled at the entrance to a ruined temple. Nobody knew who she was.
The answer began to emerge in 2010 at Saqqara, the sprawling burial ground south of Cairo. A team led by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass had uncovered a small pyramid beside that of King Teti, the first ruler of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty. It was plainly the tomb of a royal woman, but there was one problem: nothing inside identified her.
Ten years passed before archaeologists cleared the pyramid’s funerary temple and finally found what they were looking for. Written on a temple wall, and again on the fallen obelisk, was the name Queen Neit, a wife of Teti, who ruled from about 2323 to 2291 BC.
“I’d never heard of this queen before,” Hawass told CBS News when the discovery was announced in January 2021.
A Pyramid Without a Name
Teti already had two known queens buried near his pyramid. Iput I and Khuit each had a small pyramid of their own, roughly 100 meters (330 feet) away. The third, discovered in 2010, had remained a stubborn mystery, with Hawass initially suspecting it belonged to Teti’s mother, though without an inscription there was no way to know.
The temple changed that. Built of stone, it had three mud-brick storerooms along its southeastern side, spaces once used to keep offerings and equipment for the queen’s funerary cult. Archaeologists also recovered plans showing the temple’s layout. And there, among the inscriptions, was the name they had been missing.
Even the spelling has proved less than straightforward. Neit, Naert, Nearit and Neith are all English renderings of the queen’s name, a consequence of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs recording consonants rather than vowels.
For centuries, she had been absent from Egypt’s surviving written history; the discovery of her temple brought her name back.
Excavation has carried on since the announcement. In November 2025, Hawass showed King Philippe of Belgium around the site, taking him through an expanding Old Kingdom cemetery complex that includes Queen Neith’s pyramid and temple, beside Teti’s own monument.
A Cult That Lasted a Thousand Years
Finding the queen was only part of what emerged from the sand. Around Teti’s pyramid, archaeologists uncovered 22 burial shafts sunk deep into the bedrock, containing people buried roughly a thousand years after the king had died.
Most of these graves belong to the New Kingdom, particularly the 18th and 19th Dynasties, dating from about 1550 to 1186 BC. Saqqara had long been known for Old Kingdom tombs and the much later burials of the Late Period. A packed New Kingdom cemetery in the same area was unexpected.
Teti himself appears to explain the attraction. Long after his reign, Egyptians worshipped him as a god, and people wanted their own graves close to his pyramid. The cult of Teti seems to have endured for more than a millennium, making the ground around his tomb a coveted burial place.
The numbers grew quickly as excavation continued. More than 50 wooden coffins had been recovered when the discoveries were announced in 2021; by late 2022, Hawass reported nearly 300 from the area around Teti’s pyramid, many painted with individual faces and scenes from the Book of the Dead.
Those texts contained spells intended to help the deceased find their way through the underworld.
Coffins, Games and a Golden Face
Inside the shafts were objects intended to make the next life a little more comfortable. Archaeologists found boards for Senet, a game played in Egypt for centuries, along with a model boat complete with rowers, statues of Osiris and Ptah-Sokar, and a bronze axe. Hawass described one particularly striking burial: a soldier who still held a metal axe in his hand.
The preservation of some mummies was remarkably good, and several coffins had been made with two lids. One contained a woman wearing a mask of solid gold, according to Hawass.
Another woman’s mummy showed signs of familial Mediterranean fever, an inherited disorder marked by recurring bouts of fever and inflammation.
A limestone stela offered something more personal. It belonged to Khaptah, overseer of the pharaoh’s military chariots, and his wife, Mwtemwia. In its upper scene, the couple honor Osiris; below, they sit facing their six children, with three daughters smelling lotus flowers and three sons standing nearby. Two of those children, Nefertari and Khaemweset, carry names also found among members of Ramesses II’s family, offering a clue to when Khaptah may have served.
The Man Named Pwkhaef
Among the material brought up from the burial shafts was a papyrus scroll measuring about 13 feet (4 meters) long. It contained Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead, a text that, in other surviving versions, takes the form of questions and answers, almost a set of instructions for navigating the ordeals awaiting the dead.
The scroll had a name written on it: Pwkhaef.
The same name was found on one of the wooden coffins, and again on four shabti figurines. These small figures were meant to serve their owner in the afterlife, taking on the work he would otherwise have to perform himself.
Almost nothing else is known about Pwkhaef. Yet more than 3,000 years after he was buried in the shadow of Teti’s pyramid, archaeologists have recovered his coffin, his miniature servants and the papyrus intended to guide him through the next world.
Every one of them bears his name.
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