Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on 27 October 2026 that an Egyptian mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities has found the inscribed burial chamber of an Old Kingdom official named Weni. It lies in a mudbrick mastaba northwest of the pyramid of King Merenre in South Saqqara. In the same tomb the team found two small wooden statues in a rare pose of worship and a set of bronze tools that may have been used in medicine. Minister Sherif Fathy visited the site for the announcement.
The tomb has not been opened to visitors, and the ministry has not said if it will be. The rest of Saqqara is open every day, and you can see it on a day tour from Cairo.
What the mission found
| Find | What the announcement says |
|---|---|
| The tomb | A mudbrick mastaba (a flat-topped tomb) above several burial shafts. One shaft leads to Weni's inscribed burial chamber. The State Information Service gives the shaft's depth as six metres. |
| Who Weni was | The inscriptions in the burial chamber are fairly well preserved. His titles include mayor and sem priest. None of them call him a physician. |
| Two wooden statues | Two small wooden figures in a rare pose of worship, set on a small seat, found in a vaulted chamber directly above the burial chamber. |
| Bronze tools | A group of bronze instruments that officials think may have had a medical use. They compare them with the instruments carved on a wall of Kom Ombo Temple. Their real use still has to be studied. |
| The skeleton | A first study of the bones suggests Weni died after the age of 50 and that his body had done hard physical work. |
| Paintings | The State Information Service says the dry soil of Saqqara kept the painted scenes in their original colours. |
Why the bronze tools are the big question
Most of the attention is on the bronze tools. Officials compare them with the famous wall in Kom Ombo Temple, near Aswan, that shows a row of instruments often read as medical. But nothing in Weni's inscriptions says he was a doctor, and the Supreme Council of Antiquities says the tools have not been shown to be surgical instruments. For now, they are a possible medical kit in the tomb of a mayor and priest. Further study of the tools and the bones should tell more.
The statues matter for a different reason. They were placed in their own chamber above the burial, and the mission says this helps explain how the rooms of an Old Kingdom mastaba were used.