In the Shadow of Wepwawet

Abstract

Asyut, known as Siut in ancient times, was the capital of the 13th Nome of Upper Egypt. It is situated precisely in the middle of Egypt at a crossroads of routes running from north to south and east to west. The site is mainly recognised as a place where Wepwawet and Anubis were worshipped and for being the burial ground of the nomarchs in the 1st Intermediate period/Period of Regions and the Middle Kingdom. Although the city’s name appears in texts dating back to the 5th Dynasty and is predated by depictions of Wepwawet, it is only recently that evidence of an early necropolis has been found on the gebel in Asyut. It was the German-Egyptian mission of the Asyut Project (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz/Free University in Berlin/Sohag University) working on the site for the last ten seasons, which managed to locate an early cemetery.

Keywords

• Asyut
• Predynastic and Early Dynastic period
• necropolis
• pottery