Old Kingdom
Teti
6th Dynasty · 2345-2181 BCE
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Teti founded Dynasty 6 and built a pyramid at Saqqara inscribed with Pyramid Texts. His reign is linked in later sources to a change of dynasty and possibly to a marriage alliance, but the details are not securely documented by contemporary evidence. Officials’ tombs from the period reveal an increasingly elaborate administrative elite around the king. The royal pyramid complex demonstrates continuity with the late Fifth Dynasty in ritual and architecture, while the political organisation of the state was beginning to place greater resources and visibility in provincial hands. Research: Metropolitan Museum; UCL Digital Egypt.
Chronology: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
A new dynasty by marriage
The transition from the Fifth to the Sixth Dynasty was not marked by violence, but by a break in the direct male bloodline. Because the final king of the Fifth Dynasty, Unas, failed to secure a male heir, the throne passed to his son-in-law, Teti. This shift in the royal lineage led later chroniclers to designate Teti as the founder of the Sixth Dynasty.
Retaining the old guard
Teti's government was essentially a direct continuation of the previous dynasty's administration. He retained many of Unas's powerful officials, including the highly esteemed viziers Mehu and Kagemni. The most powerful man in Egypt during this time was Mereruka, who was not only Teti's vizier but also his son-in-law. Mereruka's massive 33-room mastaba at Saqqara remains one of the greatest archaeological treasures of the era, featuring exquisite reliefs depicting daily Egyptian life. Teti himself was buried in a relatively small pyramid at Saqqara, alongside the smaller pyramids of his wives, Iput (mother of Pepi I) and Khuit.
A mysterious end
The end of Teti's reign is shrouded in mystery. The ancient historian Manetho claimed that Teti was assassinated, though no physical archaeological evidence has ever been found to corroborate this story.