Reconstructing Ankhnespepy’s Pyramid Texts
Over the course of two decades, epigrapher Mathieu and MAFS undertook the painstaking work of reassembling the inscriptions in Ankhnespepy’s tomb. After the discovery of the first fragment of the texts in 2000, Mathieu recalls that “1,035 inscribed blocks had been found and inventoried” by 2003, with Collombert discovering more in later seasons, until they unearthed a total of 1,617 fragments. Each of the 1,617 stone shards had to be photographed, drawn, studied, recorded, and scanned. Putting these blocks back together was like solving a gigantic three-dimensional puzzle, where the pieces are radically different shapes and sizes, and several are missing. And yet, members of the archaeological team succeeded in reconstructing the walls, fitting small fragments into larger blocks and aligning crumbled edges to reveal the sequence of the writings. This was a monumental task, essentially requiring the team to rebuild the interior of Ankhnespepy’s burial chamber.
In the end, Mathieu and the team’s tireless work culminated in a marvel: a nearly complete corpus of the Pyramid Texts, including 10 spells never seen in any pharaonic tomb.
These new spells center on nourishment, protection, and the queen’s ascension among the gods. Each of the 11 rulers who had the Pyramid Texts inscribed in their tombs chose a slightly different version, perhaps reflecting their personalities and religious beliefs. Many of Ankhnespepy’s unique spells offer her royal and magical objects, possibly indicating her interest in affirming her status as a resurrected pharaoh: “Take this, your papyrus scepter,” exhorts one, while another promises: “The canals are open to you, so that you can immerse yourself in waves of red crowns.”
Other passages in the texts describe her reunion with the gods, declaring her divinity: You will find the gods … you shall sit with them, eat with them, and travel in the sacred sun-boat with them,” reads one such spell. “The sky shakes for you, the earth trembles for you, the imperishable stars bow before you, for you are the one that [god of the afterlife] Osiris has placed on his throne,” proclaims another. These texts armed Ankhnespepy with all the same tools that a king received to thrive in the afterlife.
Her choice to engrave these incantations was more than mere religious ambition. It was an assertion of power, a claim that the gods supported her reign. In life, she ceded the rule of Egypt to her son, but in death, she could regain the powers and privileges of a pharaoh, this time in her own right and for eternity.