A team of archaeologists working in Egypt on a joint mission between French and Swiss scientists unearthed a 4,000-year-old cave which once belonged to a doctor and so-called magician, Ancient Origins reported.
The discovery was made in Saqqara, roughly 35 miles north of Cairo, which long ago housed the ancient city of Memphis. The tomb belonged to Teti Neb Fu, a celebrated healer well-known within the community and surrounding environs. Fu worked as a doctor to the town’s elites in addition to moonlighting as a magician who would, apparently, summon and control supernatural forces when traditional healing methods refused to take hold.
Teti Neb Fu was buried in a ritualistic chamber known as a “mastaba,” which was only used for the highest-status members of society. Built with a flat roof and sloped sides and constructed from mudbricks and limestone, they were created to evoke a warm, “cave-like” atmosphere for the deceased. It’s clear from the inscription on Fu’s sarcophagus why he was afforded such a luxurious coffin. It feted him as the “Chief Palace Physician, Priest and ‘Magician’ of the Goddess Serket (an expert in treating snake bites), Chief Dentist, and Director of Medicinal Plants.”
Saqqara is the site of the first Egyptian pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Djoser, erected 4,700 years ago. Though Saqqara has long been a popular excavation site for archaeologists, this most recent discovery illuminates far more about ancient Egypt than was previously known. The unearthing of Teti Neb Fu’s cave exposes the previously unknown beliefs of ancient Egypt’s citizens, namely that those who claimed to possess supernatural knowledge or powers were afforded the comfort and reverence of society’s most important members.
