Abstract
The pyramid complex of King Djedkare in South Saqqara is a key monument for our understanding of the history of the late Fifth and early Sixth Dynasties and of the social and religious transformations of that period. Despite its exploration in the 1940s and 1950s, neither the architecture of this monument nor its relief decoration and other finds have been fully documented and published.
The current mission working in Djedkare's pyramid complex therefore has three main aims to fulfil: 1. to document its preserved architecture in detail and provide a precise plan of the funerary temple; 2. to consolidate the badly damaged parts of the substructure of the king's pyramid; 3. to document and catalogue the relief fragments collected in the funerary temple both by the previous and the current missions, and then to analyse the decorative program of the monument. A large part of the king's funerary temple has been documented since 2010, revealing many details which were not or could not be noticed by the earlier explorers.
The monument included the usual parts of a funerary temple but also some buildings which cannot be found in other Old Kingdom royal complexes. These include above all the two massifs situated in the eastern part, or an enigmatic building, today entirely gone, which was constructed in the southern part of the precinct.
In 2018, the mission uncovered the northern part of the king's monuments as well as to a smaller pyramid complex of his queen, which is neighbouring the king's monument in the north. The mission not only uncovered and documented the southern part of the queen's precinct including its entrance but also succeeded in finding the name and title of the owner of this unusual (and until that time anonymous) complex, the king's wife, Setibhor.