Ptahshepses

Ptahshepses
Ptahshepses depicted on the pillar of his mastaba
Native name	Ptḥ-Šp.ss Ptahshepses
Title	Vizier
Spouse(s)	Princess Khamerernebty
Children	several sons and one daughter

Ptahshepses (meaning "Ptah is foremost") was the vizier and son-in-law of the Fifth Dynasty pharaoh Nyuserre Ini. As such he was one of the most distinguished members of the royal court. Ptahshepses' mastaba complex in Abusir is considered by many to be the most extensive and architecturally unique non-royal tomb of the Old Kingdom.

In 1843, Richard Lepsius of Berlin University designated the Abusir site next to the pyramid complex of Sahure as "pyramid no. XIX" and subsequently published this in his Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien. Jacques de Morgan's excavation of the site in 1893 revealed the site was actually part of a mastaba. It was not until some seventy years later that the Czech Institute of Egyptology revived interest in the site with its discovery of the complete structure in a series of excavations from 1960 to 1974 led primarily by Zbyněk Žába and Abdu al-Qereti.

The mastaba of Ptahshepses was built in three phases. The entrance of the tomb, documented by de Morgan and confirmed by Zaba, is located in the northeast corner of the complex. It consists of two six-meter-high eight-stemmed fine white limestone columns shaped as lotuses, which supported a fine limestone architrave under slabs of limestone for a roof terrace. The columns represent the oldest known examples of their type from ancient Egypt.

The entrance leads to a room with six-stemmed lotus columns, built in the second enlargement phase of the mastaba and was originally to serve as an entrance to the mastaba but was closed off in the third phase of enlargement. The walls of this room are decorated with scenes of boats and preparations for Ptahshepses' mortuary cult, as well as his biographical inscription. A narrow passageway containing pictures of Ptahshepses and animals being sacrificed leads to a chapel containing fragments of statues that once stood in three niches. The northern wall of the chapel bears reliefs showing Ptahshepses overseeing agricultural work and servants bearing offerings, and the southern wall, fisherman and herdsman bearing poultry offerings at Ptahshepses's feet. Near the narrow passageway is another relief depicting Ptahshepses' six sons walking. The name of the first son, now known to be Khafini, is chiseled off. Two sons shared the name Ptahshepses, while the other three were called Kahotep, Hemakhty, and Khenu.