Friday, January 09, 2009

Old Kingdom Mummy thought to be Queen Seshestet found

When I fired up Outlook this morning my eyes nearly popped out of my head - dozens of emails alerting me to the fact that the remains of a mummy thought to be that of Queen Seshestet the mother of the Pharaoh Teti, have been found in the remains of a collapsed pyramid at Saqqara.

So thanks very much indeed to all of you who emailed. A selection of the best links are shown below:


Yahoo! News

Egyptian archaeologists have found the remains of a mummy thought to be that of Queen Seshestet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the 24th century BC, the government said on Thursday.

After five hours spent lifting the lid of a sarcophagus in a pyramid discovered south of Cairo last year, they found a skull, legs, pelvis, other body parts wrapped in linen, and ancient pottery, the government's antiquities department said.

They also found gold wrappings which would have been put on the fingers of the mummified person. Grave robbers ransacked the burial chamber in ancient times and stole the other objects.




Reuters

"Although they did not find the name of the queen buried in the pyramid, all the signs indicate that she is Seshestet, the mother of King Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty," chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass said in a statement.

Teti ruled Egypt for at least 10 years around the year 2300 BC and is buried nearby. While archaeologists have found many royal mummies from ancient Egypt, most of them are from the New Kingdom, which began 500 years after Teti's time.


news24.com

Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered what are thought to be the mummified remains of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled for 11 years in around 2 300 BC.

The remains were found in the sarcophagus of a pyramid south of the capital Cairo, Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Thursday.

The mummy was found wrapped in cloth in the 22-metre long and four-metre wide chamber, he said, adding that the sarcophagus appeared to have been looted.

Radio America

With photograph of excavation

Arqueólogos egipcios descubrieron en una pirámide en Saqqara, en las afueras de El Cairo, una cámara mortuoria con un enorme sarcófago que contiene restos de una momia y fundas de dedos de oro, informó hoy el Consejo Supremo de Antigüedades.

La entrada original a la pirámide, dedicada según el arqueólogo jefe Zahi Hawass a la reina Sesheshet, madre del faraón Teti (ca. 2318-2300 A.C.), estaba cerrada con enormes bloques de granito.

Por eso, los arqueólogos utilizaron una apertura hecha por ladrones de tumbas hace ya miles de años para entrar en la cámara de 16 metros cuadrados.

The Star.com

With a photograph of the excavation in progress.
Egyptian archaeologists have found the remains of a mummy thought to be that of Queen Seshestet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the 24th century BC, the government said on Thursday.

After five hours spent lifting the lid of a sarcophagus in a pyramid discovered south of Cairo last year, they found a skull, legs, pelvis, other body parts wrapped in linen, and ancient pottery, the government's antiquities department said.

5 comments:

Timothy Reid said...

the radio america article contains a picture of sheikh abd el- qurna not Saqqara where Queen Sesheshet was found

Andie said...

Thanks Tim

Data Miner said...

Andie i have enrolled archive.org and downloaded some pdf files and also about egypt. And I am reading it now. the pdf file is outlines of ancient egypt.

Anonymous said...

Sorry about the number of emails on this subject. Oddly, I found articles in German, Spanish, and Portugese as well as English, but none in French?

Andie said...

No need to apologize - the more the merrier. And you weren't the only one. It is always great when people send me emails with news items. Not only does it mean that I don't have to go looking for stories, but it means that I get a really good selection. It's also nice to hear from people.

I can read the Spanish, French and Portuguese but I steer clear of German. A real shame that I didn't pay more attention at German classes when I was at school in the Netherlands all those years ago!