After at least three of his predecessors being buried in Saqqara, Seth Peribsen chose to return to the 1st Dynasty royal cemetery for his own burial in a tomb labeled “Tomb P” by its excavators.
In doing so, he literally distanced himself from his predecessors, although his motivation may also have been pragmatic, as all traces of his reign seem to be limited to Upper Egypt.
Map of tomb P, built for Seth Peribsen, at Umm el-Qa’ab.
View on the remains of Tomb P.
The tomb is located slightly to the north of the 1st Dynasty tombs. It measures 21 by 18.5 metres and is entered trough its southwest corner. Like its 1st Dynasty neighbours, the tomb consisted of a series of rooms and corridors centring around a large central room. They were made of brick walls, built in a pit that was dug into the ground. Lacking subsidiary graves it deviates from the structure of the older royal tombs at this cemetery, nor does it follow the layout of the underground gallery-tombs at Saqqara built for Hotepsekhemwi and Ninetjer.
The board of a board game named Mehen was found in the tomb of Peribsen.
A mudbrick enclosure found near the tomb may have been related to Peribsen’s funerary cult. Measuring 108 by 55 metres, it was found to contain a few cult buildings, among them a shrine located in the southeast corner that consisted of 3 chapels.