Египетийн археологичид эртний хаант улсын үед хамаарах өндөр албан тушаалтны бунхныг нээсэн бөгөөд тус газраас эмнэлгийн зориулалттай байж болзошгүй хүрэл багаж хэрэгсэл олдсон нь анхаарал татаж байна.
Египетийн Сагкара бүс дэх Меренре хааны пирамидын баруун хойд хэсгээс археологичид 4000 гаруй жилийн настай “мастаба” хэмээх тэгш өнцөгт хэлбэрийн бунхныг илрүүлжээ. Supreme Council of Antiquities-ийн багийн олсон уг бунхнаас Вени хэмээх өндөр албан тушаалтны нэр, цол гуншин бүхий бичээсүүд олдсон байна. Тус бунхны босоо амнаас эмнэлгийн зориулалттай гэж таамаглаж буй хүрэл багаж хэрэгсэл олдсон нь судлаачдын анхаарлыдыг татаж байгаа ч, хананд сийлсэн бичээсүүдэд түүнийг эмч байсан гэх ямар нэгэн тэмдэглэгээ байхгүй байна.
Судалгааны багийн тэргүүн Амр эл-Тибигийн мэдээлснээр, бунхны дээд хэсэгт байрлах тахилын өрөөнөөс мөргөлийн ховор байрлалтай хоёр модон хөшөө олджээ. Мөн Венигийн ясанд хийсэн урьдчилсан шинжилгээгээр түүнийг 50-аас дээш насласан, шүдний өвчлөлтэй байсан бөгөөд бие махбодын хувьд хүнд ачаалалтай ажиллаж байсан нь тогтоогдсон байна. Энэхүү олдвор нь тухайн үеийн нийгмийн эрүүл мэнд болон амьдралын нөхцөлийг судлахад чухал ач холбогдолтой юм.
Бунхны хананд бичигдсэн цол гуншингуудаас үзвэл Вени нь захирагч, шашны зан үйлийг гүйцэтгэгч “сем” тахилч, хааны сан хөмрөгч зэрэг өндөр албан тушаал хашиж байжээ. Археологичид уг бунхнаас олдсон багаж хэрэгслийн зориулалт болон бунхны эзэнтэй хэрхэн холбогдож байгааг тодруулахаар цаашид нарийвчилсан судалгаа хийхээр төлөвлөж байна. Мөн уг мастабагаас Хатор дарь эхийн тахилч Секхет-неферти хэмээх эмэгтэйд хамаарах хуурамч хаалга олдсон нь тус бунхны архитектур болон түүхэн ач холбогдлыг нэмэгдүүлж байна.
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At the southern end of Saqqara, Egyptian archaeologists have reached the burial chamber of a high official of the Old Kingdom, more than 4,000 years old, with his name and titles still legible on the walls. His name was Weni, and the shaft leading to his tomb held something unusual: a set of bronze instruments that the antiquities authorities believe were used for medicine, even though nothing in his inscriptions says he was a doctor.
Above the burial chamber, the team found a vaulted room with two small wooden statues in a rare pose of worship. Weni’s skeleton has also been studied, and it describes a man who lived past 50 with painful teeth and a body worn by years of physical effort.
The excavation is the work of an Egyptian mission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities, led by Amr el-Tibi, director-general of the Saqqara antiquities area. Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy visited the site on October 26 and went down the burial shaft himself.
A Mastaba in the Shadow of Merenre’s Pyramid
The tomb lies northwest of the pyramid of King Merenre, a pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty who ruled around 2280 BC. It is a mastaba, a rectangular tomb with a flat roof, built here of mud brick above several burial shafts. One of them leads down to Weni’s inscribed burial chamber.
The cemetery around Merenre’s pyramid has been yielding Old Kingdom officials for several years. In 2022, the same area produced five tombs, including that of Henu, a royal sealer whose decorated burial chamber was found looted. According to Ahram Online, it was among the finds presented at the time, and the chamber is now on display in the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Weni’s chamber is described as one of the most important elements of the mastaba. Its inscriptions are in relatively good condition, which allowed the team to read his name and a list of his offices, according to Hisham el-Leithy, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
A List of Titles, and a Translation Problem
The titles listed in the ministry’s statement include mayor, sem priest, “director of every kilt,” treasurer of the king of Lower Egypt, sole companion, and lord of the city of El-Kab. Together they mark a man of high rank, with both administrative and religious duties and close ties to the royal court.
Some of these titles sound strange in translation, and at least one has already been garbled. The Arabic text gives a title that some English reports have rendered as “overseer of every royal expedition.” The more accurate reading is “director of every kilt,” a well-attested Old Kingdom court title listed in the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae, the reference dictionary of ancient Egyptian. It was an honorific held by high officials and often paired, as here, with the title of sem priest.
The sem priest held an important role in funerary ritual, performing the ceremonies that were believed to restore the senses of the dead in the afterlife. “Sole companion” and “treasurer of the king of Lower Egypt” are both courtly ranks, given to officials who had direct access to the king.
Medical Tools in the Shaft of a Man Who Was Not a Doctor
The bronze instruments were found inside Weni’s burial shaft. According to Mohamed Abdel-Badei, head of the Egyptian antiquities sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, they were likely used for medical purposes, and such objects are relatively rare in burials. The inscriptions in the chamber, however, include no medical title, and the mission plans further study to determine what the tools were used for and how they relate to the tomb’s owner.
The vaulted room directly above the burial chamber held several objects, the most notable being two small wooden statues shown in what the team describes as a rare devotional posture. Wooden figures are fragile and seldom survive in good condition. Abdel-Badei described them as an important addition to the study of funerary equipment and of how the different rooms inside a mastaba were used.
The mastaba also produced a false door, the stone doorway through which the spirit of the dead was believed to come and go to receive offerings. It belonged to a woman named Sekhet-neferti, who held several religious titles, among them priestess of Hathor, the goddess of love, music and joy.
What Weni’s Bones Reveal
A preliminary study of Weni’s skeleton shows that he died after the age of 50. He suffered from advanced disease of the teeth and the tissues around them, a common problem in ancient Egypt, where bread was gritty with sand and stone particles from grinding.
His bones also bear marks consistent with repeated physical strain. For a man with court titles and an inscribed tomb, it points to a working life that involved more than sitting at a desk. El-Tibi said the results help build a clearer picture of health and living conditions in the Old Kingdom, alongside the evidence from the inscriptions and objects.
Not the Famous Weni
The name will ring a bell for anyone who has studied ancient Egypt. Weni the Elder, an official who served under three kings including Merenre, left the longest autobiographical inscription known from the Old Kingdom. In it, he describes leading expeditions to the quarries to bring back stone for Merenre’s pyramid, including the king’s sarcophagus.
Weni the Elder, however, was buried at Abydos, in southern Egypt, where his tomb was located in 1999 by a team led by Janet Richards of the University of Michigan. The ministry’s statement presents the Saqqara Weni as a separate official, and the name was common at the time.
The mission is now carrying out architectural, linguistic and art-historical studies of the finds. It also aims to work out how the different parts of the mastaba were used across its successive phases, as part of the ongoing excavations in Merenre’s cemetery at South Saqqara.
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