Kekheretnebti or Khekeretnebty was a

Princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, who lived during the

Fifth Dynasty The Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty V) is often combined with Dynasties Third Dynasty of Egypt, III, Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, IV and Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, VI under the group title the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. The Fifth ...

. Her father was

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

Djedkare Isesi Djedkare Isesi (known in Greek as Tancheres) was a pharaoh, the eighth and penultimate ruler of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt in the late 25th century to mid- 24th century BC, during the Old Kingdom. Djedkare succeeded Menkauhor Kaiu and was in tu ...

. Kekheretnebti was buried in a

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 ...

('B') in the royal

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

Abusir Abusir ( ar, ابو صير ; Egyptian ''pr wsjr'' cop, ⲃⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲓ ' "the House or Temple of Osiris"; grc, Βούσιρις) is the name given to an Egyptian archaeological locality – specifically, an extensive necropolis of ...

, south-east of the

mortuary temple Mortuary temples (or funerary temples) were temples that were erected adjacent to, or in the vicinity of, royal tombs in Ancient Egypt. The temples were designed to commemorate the reign of the Pharaoh under whom they were constructed, as well as f ...

Niuserre Nyuserre Ini (also Niuserre Ini or Neuserre Ini; in Greek known as Rathurês, ''Ῥαθούρης'') was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He is credited with a reign of 24 to 35 ye ...

. Her skeletal remains show that she was a slender woman of 30–35 years when she died. Originally the mastaba belonged only to Kekheretnebti but later on the tomb was reconstructed and enlarged on the northern side to include a second burial, that of Kekheretnebti's daughter Tisethor, who had barely reached the age of puberty. Kekheretnebti was a full sister of princess

Hedjetnebu Hedjetnebu (Hedjetnub) was a Princess of Egypt who lived during the 5th Dynasty. Her father was Pharaoh Djedkare. Biography Hedjetnebu was buried in a tomb in Abusir, south-east of the mortuary temple of Niuserre. The skeletal remains of the pr ...

who was buried in a tomb nearby. The examination of the skeletal remains show that the sisters showed some similarities and were both clearly related to Djedkare Isesi. Archaeological evidence shows that Kekheretnebti's tomb was constructed first, soon followed by the construction of the tomb of her sister Hedjetnebu. A scribe to the royal children named Idu had a tomb constructed a short time after the tomb construction for the princesses.

Burial site

The burial mastaba of Kekheretnebti is nineteen meters long and fifteen meters wide and built of limestone and brick. It has a single entry on its eastern side which gives access to a suite of rooms arranged in a row. Despite having been looted by

tomb robbers Grave robbery, tomb robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a grave, tomb or crypt to steal commodities. It is usually perpetrated to take and profit from valuable artefacts or personal property. A related act is body snatching, a ter ...

in ancient times, upon excavation the mastaba was found to be relatively well preserved and in places still had roofing blocks in position. The tomb consisted of an

antechamber A vestibule (also anteroom, antechamber, or foyer) is a small room leading into a larger space such as a lobby, entrance hall or passage, for the purpose of waiting, withholding the larger space view, reducing heat loss, providing storage space ...

, two offering rooms and a ''

serdab A serdab ( fa, سرداب, d=Sardāb), literally meaning "cold water", which became a loanword in Arabic for 'cellar' is an ancient Egyptian tomb structure that served as a chamber for the Ka statue of a deceased individual. Used during the Old Kin ...

'' which contained the funerary statue of the princess. The hastily executed decoration of the offering room, roughly cut false door

stelae A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

and inferior wall paintings, including an unfinished painting of Kekheretnebti (sitting in a chair and watching wild animals), leads to the assumption that the death of Kekheretnebti was unexpected.

References

{{Authority control 25th-century BC women 24th-century BC women Princesses of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt