Teti
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Other uses Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox pharaoh
Teti, less commonly known as Othoes, sometimes also Tata, Atat, or Athath in outdated sources (died Template:Circa 2333 BC), was the first king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. He was buried at Saqqara. The exact length of his reign has been destroyed on the Turin King List but is believed to have been around 12 years.
Reign
Teti's Horus name Sehoteptawy, "He who pacifies the Two Lands", probably indicates that he must have led military pacification operations near the start of his reign. During Teti's reign, high officials were beginning to build funerary monuments that rivaled those of the pharaoh. His vizier, Mereruka, built a mastaba tomb at Saqqara which consisted of 33 richly carved rooms, the biggest known tomb for an Egyptian nobleman.<ref>Christine Hobson, Exploring the World of the Pharaohs, Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1997. p. 85.</ref> This is considered to be a sign that Egypt's wealth was being transferred from the central court to the officials, a slow process that culminated in the end to the Old Kingdom.Template:Citation needed
Length of Reign
Teti's highest date is his "Year after the 6th Count 3rd Month of Summer day lost" (Year 12 if the count was biannual) from Hatnub Graffito No.1.<ref>Anthony Spalinger, "Dated Texts of the Old Kingdom," SAK 21, (1994), p. 303. Template:JSTOR.</ref> This information is confirmed by the South Saqqara Stone Annal document from Pepi II's reign, which gives him a reign of around 12 years.
Family
Teti had several wives:
- Iput, may have been a daughter of Unas, the last king of the Fifth dynasty.
- Khuit, who may have been the mother of Userkare (according to Jonosi and Callender)<ref name="Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids,1994">Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, 1994.</ref>
- Khentkaus IV<ref name="Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids,1994"/>
- Naert<ref name=":0"/>
Teti is known to have had several children. He was the father of at least three sons and probably ten daughters.<ref>N. Kanawati, Mereruka and King Teti. The Power behind the Throne, 2007.</ref> Of the sons, two are well attested, and a third one is likely.
According to N. Kanawati, Teti had at least nine daughters by a number of wives, and the fact that they were named after his mother, Sesheshet, allows researchers to trace his family. At least three princesses bearing the name Seshseshet are designated as "king's eldest daughter", meaning that there were at least three different queens. It seems that there was a tenth one, born of a fourth queen, as she is also designated as "king's eldest daughter".
Children with Iput
- Pepi I (died c. 2283 BC)
- Nebkauhor: With the name of Idu, "king's eldest son of his body", buried in the mastaba of Vizier Akhethetep/Hemi, buried in a fallen Vizier's tomb, within the funerary complex of his maternal grandfather<ref>Kanawati, N., Mereruka and King Teti. The Power behind the Throne, 2007, p. 14 et 50.</ref>
- Seshseshet Waatetkhethor: Married Vizier Mereruka, in whose mastaba she has a chapel. She is designated as "king's eldest daughter of his body". She may have been the eldest daughter of Iput.<ref name="N. Kanawati 2007, p. 14, 20">Kanawati, N., Mereruka and King Teti. The Power behind the Throne, 2007, p. 14, 20 et 50.</ref>
- Seshseshet Idut: (died c. 2345 BC) "king's daughter of his body", who died very young at the beginning of her father's reign and was buried in the mastaba of Vizier Ihy.<ref name="N. Kanawati 2007, p. 14, 20"/>
- Seshseshet Nubkhetnebty: "king's daughter of his body", wife of Vizier Kagemni, represented in her husband's mastaba.<ref>N. Kanawati, Mereruka and King Teti. The Power behind the Throne, 2007, p. 20, 32 et 50.</ref>
- Seshseshet Sathor: Married to Isi, resident governor at Edfu and also titled vizier.<ref>N. Kanawati, Mereruka and King Teti. The Power behind the Throne, 2007, p. 21-22 et 50.</ref>
Children with Khuit
- Tetiankhkem (c. 2350 BC – c. 2335 BC)<ref>Kanawati, N., Conspiracies in the Egyptian Palace. Unis to Pepy I. 2003, p. 139.</ref>
Possible children with Khuit
- Seshseshet, with the name of Sheshit: King's eldest daughter of his body and wife of the overseer of the great court Neferseshemptah and is depicted in her husband's mastaba. As she is the eldest daughter of the king, she cannot be born of the same mother as Waatkhetethor and therefore may have been a daughter of Queen Khuit.<ref>N. Kanawati, Mereruka and King Teti. The Power behind the Throne, 2007, p. 20, 32 et 35.</ref>
Children with unknown spouse(s)
- Seshseshet, also called Sheshti: "King's daughter of his body", married to the keeper of the head ornaments Shepsipuptah, and depicted in her husband's mastaba.<ref>N. Kanawati, Mereruka and King Teti. The Power behind the Throne, 2007, p. 20, 32 et 36.</ref>
- Seshseshet with the beautiful name of Merout: Entitled "king's eldest daughter" but without the addition "of his body" and therefore born of a third, maybe a minor queen, and married to Ptahemhat.<ref>N. Kanawati, Mereruka and King Teti. The Power behind the Throne, 2007, p. 20-21.</ref>
- Seshseshet: Wife of Remni, "sole companion" and overseer of the department of the palace guards<ref>N. Kanawati, The Teti Cemetery at Saqqara, Volume 9: The Tomb of Remni, 2009.</ref>
- Seshseshet: Married to Pepyankh Senior of Meir<ref>Ali El-Khouli & Naguib Kanawati, Quseir El-Amarna: The Tombs of Pepy-ankh and Khewen-Wekh, 1989.</ref>
- The so-called "Queen of the West Pyramid" in King Pepi I cemetery. She is called "king's eldest daughter of his body" and king's wife of Meryre (the name of Pepi I). Therefore, she is a wife of Pepi and most certainly his half-sister.<ref>C. Berger, A la quête de nouvelles versions des textes des pyramides, in Hommages à Jean Leclant, 1994, p 73-74.</ref> As she is also an eldest daughter of the king, her mother was likely a fourth queen of Teti.
Another possible daughter is princess Inti.<ref>Dodson and Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, 2004.</ref>
Death
The Egyptian priest and chronicler Manetho states that Teti was murdered by his palace bodyguards in a harem plot, and he appears to have been briefly succeeded by a short-lived usurper, Userkare.
Pyramid of Teti
Teti was buried in the royal necropolis at Saqqara. His pyramid complex is associated with the mastabas of officials from his reign.
Third "subsidiary" pyramid to Teti's tomb
Teti's mother was the Queen Sesheshet, who was instrumental in her son's accession to the throne and a reconciling of two warring factions of the royal family.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Sesheshet lived between 2323 BC to 2291 BC. Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced on 11 November 2008 that she was entombed in a 4,300-year-old Template:Convert tall pyramid at Saqqara. This is the 118th pyramid discovered thus far in Egypt; the largest portion of its 2-metre-wide casing was built with a superstructure 5 metres high. It originally reached 14 metres, with sides 22 metres long.<ref name=Bossone>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Once 5 stories tall, it lay beneath Template:Convert of sand, a small shrine and mud-brick walls from later periods. The third known "subsidiary" pyramid to Teti's tomb was originally Template:Convert tall and Template:Convert square at its base, due to its walls having stood at a 51-degree angle. Buried next to the Saqqara Step Pyramid, its base lies Template:Convert underground and is believed to have been Template:Convert tall when it was built.<ref name=Bossone/>
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Limestone wall block fragment showing the cartouche of king Teti and funerary pyramid texts. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London -
The ruins of Teti's pyramid (Saqqara) -
Pyramid texts from Teti I's pyramid at Saqqara
Funerary temple of Queen Neith
In January 2021, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of more than 50 wooden sarcophagi in 52 burial shafts dating back to the New Kingdom period, as well as a 13 ft-long papyrus containing texts from the Book of the Dead.
Archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass at Saqqara also found the funerary temple of queen Neith and warehouses made of bricks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Previously unknown to researchers, she was a wife of Teti.<ref name=":0">Davis-Marks, Isis, Archaeologists Unearth Egyptian Queen's Tomb, 13-Foot 'Book of the Dead' Scroll, Smithsonian, 21 January 2021.</ref>
See also
References
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Bibliography
- Naguib Kanawati, Conspiracies in the Egyptian Palace: Unis to Pepy I, Routledge (2002), Template:ISBN.
- Template:Cite book