Ptahshepses c. 2505–2440 BC
Official who married a king's daughter
An official born under Menkaure and educated at the royal court, whose career ran on into the 5th Dynasty. He married Khamaat, a king's eldest daughter, the first princess known to have married a man of non-royal birth. His false door, carved with his life story, is in the British Museum. Czech archaeologists found his lost tomb at Saqqara again in 2022 and 2023, with his mummy still in its sarcophagus.
Only kings and queens wrote their names in a cartouche, so Ptahshepses's name is written without one.
Name: Ptahshepses
ptḥ-špss: “Ptah is noble”
Sign by sign
- Stool Q3p The sound p.
- Bread loaf X1t The sound t. Also the feminine ending.
- Twisted flax wick V28ḥ The sound ḥ.
- Noble seated on a chair A50špsi Writes špsi, 'noble, revered', and marks words for honoured people and the blessed dead.
- Folded cloth S29s The sound s.
- Folded cloth S29s The sound s.
Where to see Ptahshepses's name today
Saqqara
Saqqara has the oldest religious texts carved in Egypt, the Pyramid Texts of Unas, and Old Kingdom tombs whose walls are covered with captioned scenes of daily life. It is the best place in Egypt to read hieroglyphs from the age of the pyramids.
MuseumBritish Museum, London
The British Museum has one of the largest Egyptian collections outside Egypt, and you can read its hieroglyphs from the Rosetta Stone to painted coffins. Room 4 alone holds the stone and a colossal Ramesses II.
Read more about Ptahshepses
- Ptahshepses and Sabu: the Saqqara tombs the Czech mission dug out again Saqqara discovery 2026: Miroslav Bárta's Czech mission re-excavates the tombs of Ptahshepses and his father Sabu and finds the chapel of Sabu's wife.
Names of gods (Ra, Amun, Ptah) are written first out of respect, even when they are read later. Dates are approximate; we follow Ian Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000).