Abstract for the Gale Fellows Seminar on Wednesday, July 26.

Recent discoveries at Djedkare’s royal cemetery at south Saqqara

Mohamed Megahed and Hana Vymazalová

Following the 10-year-long documentation and consolidation work in Djedkare’s pyramid complex, previously uncovered by two Egyptian missions in 1946 and 1952, the Djedkare Project mission has continued their field work activities in those parts of the royal cemetery which had not yet been explored in modern times. The mission uncovered an until then unknown part of the pyramid temple of Djedkare’s queen, including relief fragments that revealed evidence identifying the owner of this monument as the king’ wife, Setibhor. The substructure of the queen’s pyramid was also explored recently, and the collected information indicated that Setibhor and her monument were a source of inspiration for subsequent Old Kingdom queens, especially during the Sixth Dynasty. To the east of the queen’s monument, two mastaba tombs have been uncovered, which belonged to elite members of Djedkare’s court. One tomb was the last resting place of Djedkare’s eldest son, Isesiankh, while the other tomb of the king’s secretary, Khuwy. The architectural features of these two tombs as well as the remains of their decoration greatly contribute to our understanding of the transformation of concepts and funerary practices during the late Fifth Dynasty. Especially Khuwy’s tomb provides new evidence of innovative decoration in the tomb substructure, which seems to attest to new tendencies and interpretations of beliefs shortly before the appearance of the royal Pyramid Texts.