Teti, less commonly known asOthoes, sometimes alsoTata,Atat, orAthath in outdated sources (diedc. 2333 BC), was the firstking of theSixth Dynasty of Egypt. He was buried atSaqqara. The exact length of his reign has been destroyed on theTurin King List but is believed to have been around 12 years.
Teti is known to have had several children. He was the father of at least three sons and probably ten daughters.[3] Of the sons, two are well attested, 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".
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[4]
Seshseshet Waatetkhethor: Married VizierMereruka, 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 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.[9]
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.[10]
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.[11]
Seshseshet: Wife of Remni, "sole companion" and overseer of the department of the palace guards[12]
Seshseshet: Married to Pepyankh Senior of Meir[13]
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.[14] As she is also an eldest daughter of the king, her mother must be a fourth queen of Teti.
Piriform mace head inscribed with the cartouche of Teti,Imhotep MuseumLantern Slide Collection: Views, Objects: Egypt. Chapel, Tomb of Nefer-Seshem-Ptah. Sakkara. 6th Dynasty., n.d. Brooklyn Museum Archives.Sistrum inscribed with the name of Teti
Teti'sHorus nameSehoteptawy, "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 that of the pharaoh. Hisvizier,Mereruka, built amastaba tomb at Saqqara which consisted of 33 richly carved rooms, the biggest known tomb for an Egyptian nobleman.[16] 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 theOld Kingdom.[citation needed]
Reign length. 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 HatnubGraffito No.1.[17] This information is confirmed by theSouth Saqqara Stone Annal document fromPepi II's reign which gives him a reign of around 12 years.
The Egyptian priest and chroniclerManetho 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.
Teti's mother was the QueenSesheshet, who was instrumental in her son's accession to the throne and a reconciling of two warring factions of the royal family.[18] Sesheshet lived between 2323 BC to 2291 BC. Egypt's chiefarchaeologistZahi Hawass, secretary general of theSupreme Council of Antiquities, announced on 11 November 2008 that she wasentombed in a 4,300-year-old 5-metre (16-foot) tallpyramid atSaqqara. 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.[19][20]
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 SaqqaraStep Pyramid, its base lies 65 feet underground and is believed to have been 50 feet tall when it was built.[19]
Limestone wall block fragment showing the cartouche of king Teti and funerary pyramid texts. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Relief from a Saqqara tomb dating to the Ramesside Period showing, from left to right,Djoser, Teti, andUserkaf[note 1][21]
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 theBook of the Dead.
Archaeologists led byZahi Hawass at Saqqara also found the funerary temple of queen Neith and warehouses made of bricks.[22][23] Previously unknown to researchers, she was a wife of Teti.[2]
^Gauthier, Henri (1906). "Note et remarques historiques III: Un nouveau nom royal".Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale (in French).5:41–57.ISSN0255-0962.
^It's believed by some Egyptoligists that Teti is the one being mentioned in the middle cartouche. However, it is possible that the pharaohs are listed in chronological order based on when they ruled, which in that case, the middle cartouche would be referring toSekhemkhet, whose nomen was also Teti.
