Czech mission documents Ikhetnefert’s chapel at Saqqara
The mission documented Sabu’s wife Ikhetnefert’s previously unknown offering chapel and also reported mummy remains in their son Ptahshepses’s sarcophagus.
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The mission documented Sabu’s wife Ikhetnefert’s previously unknown offering chapel and also reported mummy remains in their son Ptahshepses’s sarcophagus.
A Czech Institute of Egyptology mission has documented a previously unknown offering chapel belonging to Ikhetnefert, wife of the Old Kingdom official Sabu, at Saqqara in Egypt. The mission also found remains identified as the mummy of their son, Ptahshepses, inside a limestone sarcophagus.
ARTnews described the findings following an announcement by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, first covered by Ahram Online. The institute also reproduces a ministry statement labeled October 2026.
The work returns to tombs that French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette first explored in 1858–1860. Parts remained incompletely explored and documented before sand covered the monuments again. Ikhetnefert’s chapel was among the parts Mariette had not found.
Saqqara, south of Cairo, was the principal burial ground of ancient Memphis. Sabu and Ptahshepses were high-ranking officials associated with worship of the god Ptah there.
Ikhetnefert’s offering chapel—a place where relatives could leave offerings for the dead—contains a false door depicting her with her husband and their sons. This symbolic doorway did not open; ancient Egyptians believed it connected the living and the dead. Mission leader Miroslav Bárta says the scenes provide new information about the family and its relationships.
Sabu’s tomb lies north of his son’s. Its preserved reliefs show Sabu and Ptahshepses overseeing processions of people carrying offerings.
An earlier Charles University account says satellite images and old maps led to the rediscovery of Ptahshepses’s tomb in 2022, between the pyramid fields of Abusir and Saqqara. The burial chamber was examined in spring 2023. That account already described the mummy and its examination by Egyptian anthropologists.
The institute says the chamber had been robbed in antiquity, with jewelry and valuables removed, although the mummy survived. ARTnews describes the remains as “untouched”; the institute’s account makes clear that the burial itself had been disturbed.
ARTnews gives an estimated age at death of over 60. The earlier university account gives the anthropologists’ estimate as at least 65, consistent with the long life described in Ptahshepses’s biographical inscriptions.
Hisham El-Leithy, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, says modern study and documentation are revealing details of Old Kingdom funerary architecture, religious beliefs and officials’ social lives. The institute says the mission continues studying and conserving both tombs while pursuing further excavations aimed at uncovering more tombs at Saqqara.
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