4,000-Year-Old Tomb of Ancient Egyptian ‘Keeper of the Secrets’ Discovered at Saqqara

An Egyptian official named Sekhentiu-Ptah, who held a collection of titles placing him close to royal power, was found in a tomb at Saqqara, Giza. The tomb includes a funerary chapel, an intact false door, and a complete set of alabaster ritual objects still in their original position. The discovery was made during the first excavation season in Sector A, west of the Bubasteion, and reveals details about funerary rituals and practices during the Old Kingdom. The tomb dates to the Old Kingdom, and the false door and ritual objects indicate Sekhentiu-Ptah's high status in royal administration. The assemblage includes an offering table, offering disk, purification basin, jug, and another basin, and the inscriptions reveal his titles as Royal Chamberlain, Overseer of All the King’s Works, and Priest of the goddess Maat. Archaeologists also found more than 100 faience ushabti figurines and a wooden falcon statue, contributing to understanding the site’s internal layout and the development of its architecture through its successive historical phases. The site is layered on top of a cemetery, with some burial shafts containing human remains and funerary cartonnage. Despite some tomb robbers penetrating parts of the complex, enough remained intact to reconstruct how the necropolis changed over time. The artifacts have great archaeological value and are being documented and compared with material from other parts of Egypt. The discovery is a work in progress, with plans to publish the results in peer-reviewed journals.

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