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Weni's tomb at Saqqara: an Old Kingdom official read by his titles

12 November 2026

In late October 2026 Egypt's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Sherif Fathy, toured South Saqqara, where an Egyptian mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities had found the decorated tomb of an Old Kingdom official named Weni. It lies in the cemetery northwest of the pyramid of King Merenre of the 6th Dynasty.

Weni's burial chamber still carries its inscriptions, and they list his titles: mayor, sem priest, treasurer, sole companion and lord of Elkab. A vaulted room above it held two small wooden statues, and bronze tools lay in his shaft.

The tomb sits beside the pyramid of Merenre

The tomb is a mastaba, a flat-topped tomb of mud brick, with several burial shafts. One of them leads down to Weni's burial chamber. Its walls carry hieroglyphs above rows of painted jars and offerings, still in fairly good condition. The mission is led by Amr El-Tibi, director-general of the Saqqara antiquities area, whose name some reports spell El-Tayeb.

Merenre reigned around 2280 BC. His pyramid stands in South Saqqara, close to those of Pepi I and Pepi II, far from the busy northern part of the site where most visitors go.

Weni's first title marked very high rank

Old Kingdom officials listed their titles wherever their names stood, so that anyone bringing offerings knew whom they were feeding. Weni's list opens with ḥꜣtj-ꜥ (hati-a), written with the forepart of a lion () for ḥꜣt, "front", and the forearm () for ꜥ. It is usually translated "mayor" or "count", and it ranked just below the highest titles of the court.

Reports translate another of his titles as "treasurer of the king of Lower Egypt", the English usually given for ḫtmtj-bjtj, literally "sealer of the king of Lower Egypt". It is written with the seal on a necklace () and the bee (), the sign of the king of Lower Egypt. The title goes back to the 1st Dynasty, and Imhotep held it under Djoser.

Forepart of a lion Forearm Seal on a necklace, seen from the side Bee

Sole companion was a rank at court

smr wꜥtj (semer wati), "sole companion", put an official among the king's own circle. Its second word, wꜥtj, "sole", is written with the harpoon (), which stands for wꜥ, "one".

Lord of Elkab, nb nḫb, joins the basket () for nb, "lord", and the rush with shoots () for Nekheb, the town in Upper Egypt now called Elkab. The sem priest took part in the rites for the dead.

English reports disagree on one more title. One account gives it as "overseer of all royal apartments", another as "director of every kilt". The ministry has not yet published the hieroglyphs behind either.

Harpoon Basket Rush with shoots

The bronze tools may have been a doctor's

The two wooden statues stood in the vaulted room directly above the burial chamber, in a worshipping pose that the excavators call rare. Bronze instruments lay inside Weni's shaft. The ministry's experts think they were medical tools, but no title on his walls calls him a physician, so what he did with them is open. No count or list of the tools has been published.

His skeleton belongs to a man who died after the age of 50. He had advanced disease of the teeth and gums, and his bones carry the marks of repeated heavy strain.

A priestess of Hathor had her own false door

The same dig found the false door of a woman named Sekhet-Nebty, carved with religious titles that include priestess of Hathor. A false door was the place where the living left food and drink for the dead. The reports do not say whether she was related to Weni.

A few days earlier the Czech mission at Saqqara had shown the false door of Ikhetnefert, mother of the official Ptahshepses, in a tomb dug out again after more than a century.

Read about Ptahshepses and Sabu

Weni the Elder lived under the same king

The best-known official of the 6th Dynasty is also called Weni. Weni the Elder began his career under Teti, served Pepi I as judge and general, and was made governor of Upper Egypt by Merenre. His autobiography tells of army campaigns against the sand-dwellers and of a canal he cut at the First Cataract. The carved slab is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Weni the Elder's tomb at Abydos was found again in 1999 by a team led by Janet Richards. A second tomb of his, with a near-identical copy of the biography, turned up in the cemetery of Pepi I at Saqqara. According to Daily Galaxy's account of the ministry statement, the new Weni is a separate official with a name that was common at the time. The titles reported from his walls do not include governor or general.

The name wnj begins with the hare (), which stands for wn.

Hare

See the hare sign

Questions

Was Weni a doctor?

His inscriptions published so far give him no medical title, although bronze instruments that may be medical lay in his shaft. Experts are still studying them.

Is the new Weni the same as Weni the Elder?

The ministry presents him as a different man. Weni the Elder was buried at Abydos and had a second tomb near the pyramid of Pepi I, while this Weni lies by the pyramid of Merenre.

Can you visit Weni's tomb?

No opening to visitors was announced. South Saqqara is a working excavation, and the tomb's paintings and objects still need conservation.

How old is Weni's tomb?

The excavators date it to the Old Kingdom and it stands in the cemetery of Merenre, who reigned around 2280 BC. That makes it about 4,300 years old, although the reports give no exact date for Weni himself.

Glossary

dynasty: A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
false door: A carved stone door in a tomb chapel that does not open. The dead were thought to pass through it to receive the food and drink the living left in front of it.
hieroglyphs: The picture signs of ancient Egyptian writing, used from about 3200 BC to AD 394. A sign can stand for sounds, for a whole word, or for the kind of thing a word means.
Lower Egypt: The north of Egypt, the flat Nile Delta from around Memphis to the sea. It is called lower because it is downstream.
mastaba: A flat-topped tomb of mud brick or stone with sloping sides, built over a burial shaft. The name is the Arabic word for a bench.
Old Kingdom: The age of the pyramid builders, about 2686 to 2181 BC, from the 3rd to the 6th Dynasty.
priest: A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
pyramid: A royal tomb with four sloping sides meeting at a point, built in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza is the largest.
tomb: A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.
Upper Egypt: The south of Egypt, the narrow Nile valley from around Memphis to Aswan. It is called upper because it is upstream.