The ancient Egyptian necropolis of Sakkara is famous for its tombs and pyramids. Now archaeologists have made another special find in the southern part of this necropolis: They discovered the 4,100-year-old grave of a royal personal physician. According to inscriptions in the tomb, the ancient Egyptian healer named “Teti Neb Fu” was the chief palace doctor, director of medicinal plants and “chief dentist” at the Pharaoh’s court. It is still unclear which rulers he treated at the time.
The necropolis of Saqqara is located around 20 kilometers south of Cairo on the western bank of the Nile. This necropolis is one of the largest and longest-used in ancient Egypt: around 5,000 years ago, high-ranking dead people were buried here in special grave buildings, the so-called mastabas. Constructed of limestone and mud bricks, these tombs resemble a pyramid without a top. Later, pyramids were built in Sakkara as a resting place for several pharaohs, including Horemheb, Djoser and Pepi II.
Grave discovery in the southern part of the necropolis
For several years now, a French-Swiss team of archaeologists led by Philippe Collombert from the University of Geneva has been carrying out excavations in the southern part of the Saqqara necropolis. In this part of the necropolis there are mostly younger tombs, but also some royal pyramids, including the tomb pyramid of Pepi II, the last pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty and the Old Kingdom, who died in 2180 BC. During the 2024 excavation season, archaeologists came across another grave near the mastaba of Ouni, a vizier under Pharaoh Pepi I. This dates back to around 4,100 years ago, shortly after the end of the Old Kingdom, as the team reports.
“The grave appeared, on the surface, to be fairly ordinary. Several tombs of this type have already been discovered in the necropolis, including one in this sector,” explain the archaeologists. But in the course of the excavations, the newly discovered grave turned out to be special. “Once we began to uncover the area above the tomb shaft, we discovered a beautiful false door stele with the name of a doctor named Teti Neb Fu,” the team reports in their blog. Shortly afterwards, a massive lintel appeared, decorated with large, clear hieroglyphs. Also these repeated names and titles of Teti Neb Fu.
Healer with a high position in the Pharaoh’s court
The inscriptions in the newly discovered tomb indicate a high-ranking position of the ancient Egyptian healer: Teti Neb Fu is described, among other things, as the official palace doctor and as the priest of the goddess Serket. She was considered the mistress of scorpions and a protector from scorpion stings. The doctor Teti Neb Fu could have been a specialist in poisons and antidotes, as the archaeologists explain. In other hieroglyphs, the healer is described as “director of medicinal plants” – a title that, according to Collombert, has only been discovered once in ancient Egyptian sites. Furthermore, according to the inscriptions, the doctor was the “chief dentist” of Egypt.
According to Colombert and his colleagues, these descriptions suggest that Teti Neb Fu must have been a royal personal physician and the leading healer at the pharaoh’s court. “He probably treated the Pharaoh himself,” says Collombert. The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities therefore classifies this special grave find as further evidence of the importance of the Sakkara necropolis. Even though the former grave goods and the dead man himself fell victim to grave robbers a long time ago, magnificent wall paintings testify to the doctor’s high status: “The walls of the burial chamber are completely painted with bright and fresh colors. “It would be easy to forget that they are 4,000 years old,” said the archaeologists. Analyzes of these murals have only just begun.
Source: Mission Archéologique Franco-Suisse de Saqqara