Due to the shortage of direct evidence, the transition between the Fourth and the Fifth Dynasty presents us with major problems in our efforts to reconstruct the history of the Old Kingdom. The discussion about this period and its protagonists is fraught with a number of theories and speculations and the factual material is either ambiguous or missing. Moreover, discussion concerning the emergence of the Fifth Dynasty has, for a long time, been influenced and, unfortunately, obscured by an important literary source namely, the Papyrus Westcar and its story about the divine birth of the kings of this dynasty.
Until recently, the aforesaid discussion was also largely influenced by the exploration of the stepped tomb of the Queen Khentkaus I in Giza. In the early 1930s the tomb’s owner, due to her extraordinary title “Mother of two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt”, was understood to be the “mother” of the Fifth Dynasty. Archaeological explorations in the Abusir necropolis by the Czech archaeological team, and an unexpected discovery of the pyramid of Khentkaus II, however, showed that the problem of the transition between the Fourth and Fifth Dynasty was much more complex than had at first appeared. New and invaluable information relating to this problem brought an unexpected discovery made by an Egyptian archaeological team during the reconstruction of Sahure’s pyramid causeway in Abusir. The previously unknown blocks discovered by the Egyptian team revealed historically important scenes and inscriptions and propelled our knowledge forwards at a remarkable pace. These discoveries have enabled us to reconsider the said problems and suggest a new reconstruction of historical events at the end of the Fourth and the beginning of the Fifth Dynasty.
