Teti

Teti
Sistrum inscribed with the name of Teti.
Pharaoh
Reign	2345–2333 BC (6th Dynasty)
Predecessor	Unas
Successor	Userkare
Royal titulary  Nomen Teti Horus name Hr Sehetep Tawy Horus, who satisfies (pacifies?) the two lands Nebty name Sehetep Nebty Who satisfies the two ladies Golden Horus Hr nebu sema The golden Horus who unites
Consort	Iput I, Khuit, Khentkaus IV
Children	Pepi I Tetiankhkem
Burial	Pyramid of Teti

Teti, less commonly known as Othoes, was the first Pharaoh of the Sixth dynasty of Egypt and is buried at Saqqara. The exact length of his reign has been destroyed on the Turin King List, but is believed to have been about 12 years.

Biography

Teti had several wives:

• Iput, the daughter of Unas, the last king of the Fifth dynasty. Iput was the mother of Pepi I.
• Khuit, who may have been the mother of Userkare (according to Jonosi and Callender)^[1]
• Khentkaus IV^[1]
• Weret-Imtes? This queen is mentioned in the autobiography of Wenis. It may be a reference to the title of the queen instead of her personal name. She was involved in a harem plot to overthrow Pepi, but apparently was caught before she succeeded. In the tomb of the official Wenis there is mention of “a secret charge in the royal harem against the Great of Sceptre”.

Teti is known to have had several children. He was the father of at least three sons and probably ten daughters.^[2] Of the sons, two are well attested, a third one is likely:

• Pepi I
• Tetiankhkem^[3]
• Nebkauhor, with the beautiful 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^[4]

Piriform mace head inscribed with the cartouche of Teti, Imhotep Museum.

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 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".

• Seshseshet, whose beautiful name was Waatetkhéthor, married to 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.^[5]
• Seshseshet with the beautiful name of Idut, "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.^[5]
• Seshseshet Nubkhetnebty, "king’s daughter of his body", wife of Vizier Kagemni, represented in her husband’s mastaba. She was maybe also born of Iput.^[6]
• Seshseshet, also called Sathor, married to Isi, resident governor at Edfu and also titled vizier. She also would have been born of Iput I.^[7]

Lantern Slide Collection: Views, Objects: Egypt. Chapel, Tomb of Nefer-Seshem-Ptah. Sakkara. 6th Dynasty., n.d. Brooklyn Museum Archives

• Seshseshet, with the beautiful 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 an 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.^[8]
• 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.^[9]
• 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.^[10]
• Seshseshet, wife of Remni, "sole companion" and overseer of the department of the palace guards^[11]
• Seshseshet, married to Pepyankh Senior of Meir^[12]
• The so-called "Queen of the West Pyramid" in King Pepy I cemetery. She is called "king’s eldest daughter of his body" and king's wife of Meryre (the name of Pepy I). Therefore she is a wife of Pepi and most certainly his half-sister.^[13] As she is also an eldest daughter of the king, her mother must be a fourth queen of Teti.

Another possible daughter is princess Inti.^[14]

During Teti's reign, high officials were beginning to build funerary monuments that rivaled that 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.^[15] 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.

Manetho states that Teti was murdered by his palace bodyguards in a harem plot, but he may have been assassinated by the usurper Userkare. He was buried in the royal necropolis at Saqqara. His pyramid complex is associated with the mastabas of officials from his 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.^[16] 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.

Third "subsidiary" pyramid to Teti's tomb

Limestone wall block fragment showing the cartouche of king Teti and funerary pyramid texts. 6th Dynasty. From the Pyramid of Teti, Saqqara, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London

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.^[17] Sesheshet lived between 2323 BC to 2291 BC. Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced, on November 11, 2008, that she was entombed in a 4,300-year-old 5-metre (16-foot) 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.^[18][19]

The ruins of Teti's pyramid (Saqqara)

Pyramid texts from Teti I's pyramid at Saqqara

Once 5 stories tall, it lay beneath 7 meters (23 feet) of sand, a small shrine and mud-brick walls from later periods. The third known "subsidiary" pyramid to Teti's tomb was originally 46 feet (14 meters) tall and 72 feet (22 meters) 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 65 feet underground and is believed to have been 50 feet tall when it was built.^[20][21][22]

See also

• List of Egyptian pyramids
• List of megalithic sites

References

Further reading

• Naguib Kanawati, Conspiracies in the Egyptian Palace: Unis to Pepy I, Routledge (2002), ISBN 0-415-27107-X.

External links

• The South Saqqara Stone: Sixth Dynasty Annals
• BBC, In pictures: New pyramid found