Archaeologists identify forgotten queen and discover hundreds of mummies in Egypt

Archaeologists led by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass identified the tomb of Queen Neit in Saqqara, a large necropolis south of Cairo.

For over 4,000 years, the name of this queen remained unknown despite being carved on an obelisk near a ruined temple. Researchers first discovered a small pyramid near the pyramid of Pharaoh Teti in 2010, but they could not identify the royal family member buried inside until they cleared the adjacent funerary temple a decade later.

The temple and a fallen obelisk revealed the name of Queen Neit, the wife of Teti who ruled from approximately 2323 to 2291 BCE. Because ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs only recorded consonants, the name appears in various English spellings such as Neit, Naert, Nearit, and Neith. The discovery returned the queen to historical records after her name had been missing from written history for centuries.

Beyond the royal tomb, the team found 22 burial shafts containing remains from the New Kingdom period, roughly 1,000 years after Teti's reign. Experts believe the site became popular because Egyptians continued to worship Teti as a deity for over a millennium. By the end of 2022, the team had located nearly 300 wooden sarcophagi in the area.

These graves contained items like board games, model boats, and a 4-meter-long papyrus scroll containing a chapter from the Book of the Dead.