Gemniemhat (also called Gemni) was an ancient Egyptian official who is known from his well preserved burial excavated at

Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. ...

. Gemniemhat dates to the end of the

First Intermediate Period The First Intermediate Period, described as a 'dark period' in ancient Egyptian history, spanned approximately 125 years, c. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom. It comprises the Seventh (although this is mostly considered spurious ...

or early Middle Kingdom. His burial was found by

Cecil Mallaby Firth Cecil Mallaby Firth (5 July 1878 – 1931) was a British Egyptologist. Firth was baptised at Ashburton in Devon on 14 August 1878, the son of Henry Mallaby Firth, gent., and Frances (Fanny) Caunter. He became a lawyer, and after briefly wor ...

in 1921, who excavated part of the cemeteries around the

pyramid of Teti The pyramid of Teti is a smooth-sided pyramid situated in the pyramid field at Saqqara in Egypt. It is the second known pyramid containing pyramid texts. Excavations have revealed a satellite pyramid, two pyramids of queens accompanied by cult s ...

. The burial of Gemniemhat was found at the bottom of a

shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...

and contained two decorated coffins. The head of the deceased was covered with a mummy mask. Around the coffins were found many wooden models showing the production of food, two female offering bearers and a small wooden statue of Gemniemhat. The objects are today in the

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...

, although only the inner coffin could be preserved.Mogens Jorgensen: ''Catalogue, Egypt I (3000–1550 B.C.), Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek'' Copenhagen 1996, {{ISBN, 87-7452-202-7, pp. 124–151 Above ground there was a small mud brick

mastaba A mastaba (, or ), also mastabah, mastabat or pr- djt (meaning "house of stability", " house of eternity" or "eternal house" in Ancient Egyptian), is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inwar ...

decorated with a false door. Here, Gemniemhat bears several titles, including ''royal sealer'', ''steward'', ''overseer of the granaries''. He was also funerary priest at the pyramid of king

Merikare Merikare (also Merykare and Merykara) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 10th Dynasty who lived toward the end of the First Intermediate Period. Purportedly inspired by the teaching of his father, he embarked on a semi-peaceful coexistence p ...

References

20th-century BC people Ancient Egyptian royal sealers Ancient Egyptian overseers of the granaries