IFAO

In 1973, a posthumous article appeared, written by A. Fakhry, where he speaks of three inscriptions of the Middle Kingdom which he had discovered at El-Harra, at the oasis of Bahareya, and which he thought had a connection with the presence of ancient miners. In 2001, this site was once again visited within the framework of a mission led by the IFAO to the oasis. Seven inscriptions near the entrance to the underground galleries were found there. Three of them referred to a local governor named Hebi, two others being offering stelae in the name of royal servants, mentioning the name of a divinity Opet. An examination of the area seems to eliminate the hypothesis of a mining development: the galleries found there are most certainly of a natural origin. On the other hand, the very presence of these caves could have given the place a remarkable aspect in ancient times. The place itself, situated on a knoll at the approach to the oasis takes on an undeniable strategic interest, as it allows surveillance of the roads coming from the Nile valley. If the inscriptions found at El-Harra are modest, they are, for the moment, the only written sources of the Middle Kingdom found at the oasis of Bahareya. Some of them could date from the beginning of XIIth dynasty, and constitute, for this reason, an important milestone in the hystory of this region.

Publication of a late cursive hieratic ostracon of unknown provenance. The text seems to deal with the offering of commodities by several individuals. Although the purpose of this document remains obscure, the main interest of the text is palaeographical, as some of the signs belong to a late evolution of the hieratic script which is connected with early demotic.

A thousand terracottas were found during excavations at Ayn Asil between 1985 and 2000. Coming from the Governor’s palace dated from the reign of Pepy II, most of them represent animals but a series of pieces comprise persons (head of man, bust, woman perhaps pregnant). The number of pieces and the well known context allow us to propose an explanation for their function. If some terracottas certainly had a utilitarian role (vessel?), some of them were found with offerings. These seem to confirm that some sectors of the palace played a particular role and that some cults near Medou-nefer’s sanctuary continued even when this sanctuary was buried.

Three Old Kingdom biographies are investigated in this paper. A new translation is offered for two of the property deeds of Metjen, the famous official of the Early IVth Dyn. Dating criteria show that the short biography of Hetep-her-ni-ptah also belongs to the same period, if not slightly earlier. It includes the very first known example of the famous sentence «this had never been done», connected to a royal benefaction granted to the official. Finally, some parts of the recently published biography of Hezi (Saqqara, Teti Cemetery, VIth Dyn.) are reinvestigated.

Since April 10th 1894, when Jacques de Morgan discovered his tomb at Dahshur, Auibrê Hor and his place in the Egyptian chronology have incited debates between egyptologists, particularly Gaston Maspero and Jacques de Morgan. This difficult question has never been the subject of a specific study – one whose concern is the presence of a seal of clay bearing the name of pharaoh Nymaêtrê found on the canopic box.

Thus, the author attempts to reduce the incertitude concerning the dating. Examining by turns the differents objets belonging to the funerary furniture of this sovereign and the texts engraved on their surfaces, in relation to scarabs in European collections engraved with the names of king Hor, he demonstrates that these can be dated from the XIIIth Dynasty or later with difficulty, and the author proposes the hypothesis of a later dating than that previously conjectured by G. Maspero and other scholars. Basing himself on iconographical, lexicographical, and architectural details belonging respectively to the furniture and the structure of the tomb itself, the author argues that this dating should be reconsidered in order that king Auibrê‘ be placed between Senusret III and Amenemhet III.