27th Dynasty tomb of Sekhemet-Nefret found in Saqqara

National Geographic News (Dan Morrison)

This is a significant elucidation of yesterday's State Information Service offering:

An ancient Egyptian noblewoman's large stone coffin has been found in a tomb near the pyramid of Unas, experts announced yesterday Archaeologists were digging near the crumbling pyramid in Saqqâra, 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of Cairo, when they discovered the tomb, which had been built more than 600 years before the noblewoman's death. (Check out a map of ancient Saqqâra.)

The find is another example of the enduring gravity of ancient Egypt's sacred places, said expedition leader Ola el-Aguizy of Cairo University. El-Aguizy said the coffin of the noblewoman, named Sekhemet Nefret, was the first from Egypt's 27th dynasty (525 to 402 B.C.) to be found in this part of Saqqâra, an ancient royal burial ground.
The walls of the burial shaft were made in part with carved stone slabs, known as stelae. The stone dates from the even earlier reign of the pharaoh Djoser, who was buried in Saqqâra's distinctive step pyramid. . . .

She was related to Udja Hor Resenet, a physician and scribe. Resenet helped the Persian king Cambyses II conquer Egypt and later tutored the new ruler in Egyptian religion and rituals, said Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Inscriptions on Nefret's sarcophagus, or coffin, also identified her as the mother of a priest who presided over a cult devoted to Pharaoh Menkaure, the 4th-dynasty king who was buried in the third biggest Pyramid of Giza.

The sarcophagus was found to be empty, with no traces of the mummy remaining. See the above page for the full story, which is accompanied by a photograph of the figurines which were left behind when the tomb was robbed (click on the photo to enlarge it).