Was the victim of the first political assassination a Pharaoh?
From the ancient pharaoh to the first men, the study of ancient history is far more than just collecting facts. Remember, these are times when vanishingly few people had no concept of a fact to begin with, and everything will be biased in favour of one point of view over all the others.
Now, admittedly, that may sound like all attempts at documenting the world’s events today. The difference in 2026 is the existence of other reports that may not be as biased as others. Or, at the very least, will be biased in a slightly different way and offer a counterpoint to the other sources, allowing people to make their own decision. In ancient times, the ability to document history was something available to a small number of incredibly powerful people.
More accurately, a small amount of people with access to and the patronage of those incredibly valuable people. Thus, reports and history you might find that consistently praise the leader of the region at the time it was written and talk about how universally beloved they were, might not be as reliable as it seems.
One of the best examples of this comes from the Pharaoh Teti, the founder of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty. We know that Teti existed and was a king of Egypt. Everything else, right down to the length of his reign, estimated to be around 12 years, is seemingly up for debate and interpretation. By the standards of Egyptian Pharaohs, that’s pretty short.
Things get much more exciting exploring the evidence available and realise that Teti’s reign might have been short because he was possible the victim of the first ever political assassination.
Was the pharaoh Teti assassinated?!
Again, all this is built around extrapolating from other data rather than being set in stone or taken as fact. We know that Teti was the first in a new dynasty of Egyptian kings, and thus, we can assume that this was a period of political instability in the country. Something he was successful at quelling by his Horus name of Sehoteptawy. On death, Pharaohs were given a set of new names that reflected their achievements, and Sehoteptawy roughly translates to, “He who pacifies the two lands”.
This gives some credence to the testimony of the Egyptian priest and scholar Manetho. He claims that the palace guards were still loyal to the fifth dynasty of Pharaohs, and, after Teti’s campaigns against his usurpers were successful, they murdered him in his own harem. This is supported by the reports of Teti’s successor. Some report the brief reign of Userkare (a name constructed in the manner of fifth dynasty pharaoh), whilst more official channels do not.
It stands to reason that the Userkare was a usurper put in place by sympathisers (or indeed, members) of the fifth dynasty of Egyptian kings. His short reign was then ended by Pepi I, Teti’s son. If Userkare really was a murderous usurper, then it would make sense for Pepi I to wipe out all mention of him from royal records. Of course, on the other hand, this could all be cobblers.
In that case, you start looking at why Manetho’s testimony might be biased and false, who is saying the Userkare reigned at all, and every possibility begins a new line of investigation.
It does mean that every discovery comes with a caveat, but still, cool as fuck, right?!