That's a wrap! Season ends at Middle Kingdom site at Lisht.

That's a wrap! Season ends at Middle Kingdom site at Lisht.
The joint team of Ministry of Antiquities and University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) have wrapped up the current season at the necropolis at Lisht - a site where some of the inhabitants of the Middle Egyptian capital city were buried.

Most people have heard of Thebes, Memphis and Alexandria as capital cities in Egyptian history, but in the Middle Kingdom, the rulers of Egypt established a new capital at Itj-Tawy ("Siezer of Two Lands"[1]) after a reunification of Egypt in approximately year 20 of the reign of the Theban ruler Amenemhat I.

Itj-tawy is believed to lie south of what is now Cairo in the vicinity of the Faiyum Oasis. Although the exact location of this city has not yet been identified with certainty, it is known that its burial areas are at Lisht, el-Lahun and Dahshur.

It is hoped that the study of these tombs will provide more insights into the city and its inhabitants during the Middle Kingdom.
"Mr. Adel Okasha (Director of Cairo and Giza Antiquities) said that the team finished the documentation, mapping and 3D topographic survey of south Lisht as 802 tombs were documented which represent a group of Middle Kingdom tombs previously excavated."

[1] Tawy - The Two Lands - was a common descriptor for the country we now know as 'Egypt' in English. The duality of the country was reflected the Nile Valley/Desert, Upper/Lower Egypt and the realms of the Living and the Dead. If you look at the map of the location in the article you will see a clear delineation between these two 'Lands'.

Read the report from the the Luxor times
Image: The Luxor Times, 2018

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