More re Sesheshet mummy

Seshseshet's pyramid was discovered last November in Saqqara, the vast burial ground near modern-day Cairo that was part of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis.

Two other previously known pyramids were for his principal wives, Iput I and Khuit.

Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), noted that there are currently no plans to run DNA tests on the mummy to confirm its identity.

"We believe the [newfound] pyramid belonged to the queen, the mother of Teti, because she is the third woman that we know in the life of the king," Hawass said.

Motherly Love

Royal moms were revered in ancient Egypt, as they were literally considered the mothers of a god. Teti's mother was an especially well-known figure in her day.

"Teti loved his mother so much that he named all of his [nine] daughters after her," said Egyptologist Naguib Kanawati of Macquarie University in Australia, who was not involved in the new find.

The serenity and divinity at the necropolis of the Sixth- Dynasty King Teti at Saqqara was disturbed last week by a dozen Egyptian workmen and archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), who assembled at the site to continue excavation work at the newly-found subsidiary pyramid of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of King Teti.

Armed with brushes, buckets, ropes and shovels, the workmen crowded around the pyramid's main entrance, which was blocked with huge granite blocks erected by ancient Egyptians to prevent tomb raiders from crossing the threshold.

All efforts to remove the barrier blocks failed, but in the end the mission succeeded in entering the burial chamber through a hole they found on top of the pyramid. This hole was in fact made by thieves in antiquity.

In the burial chamber, which measure 16 square metres, a huge granite sarcophagus was found along with clay fragments dating back to the Old Kingdom and Late Period.

After five hours of hard work, workers succeeded in removing the sarcophagus lid, which weighed almost six tonnes, by using a special wooden machine with ropes which they call "the devil" because it "can do anything and all things like the devil".

Inside the sarcophagus they found the remains of Queen Sesheshet's mummified body, wrapped in linen. This consisted of the skull, legs and pelvis. Inside the sarcophagus the team also came across a gold hand cover, pieces of another, smaller sarcophagus and fragments of hieroglyphic signs.

"Although the name of Queen Sesheshet was not found on the sarcophagus, all the archaeological evidence indicated that the pyramid was not a subsidiary pyramid for Queen Sesheshet but was a burial for a queen who most probably was Queen Sesheshet, mother of King Teti I, the founder of the Sixth Dynasty," Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly.