Dayr Al-Barshā

This is the first volume of the final reports of the Mission of the K.U.Leuven in Dayr al-Barsha (Middle Egypt). It contains the publication (in colour photographs and line drawings in colour) of three small tombs probably dated immediately after the Unification of Egypt in the reign of pharaoh Mentuhotep II (XIth Dynasty). After an introduction on the long-term research strategy of the Dayr al-Barsha project it first offers an account of the setting of the tombs and of earlier research carried out there. This is followed by a detailed account of each of the three monuments, including a detailed philological commentary of the texts. These include two autobiographical inscriptions, of which one has received little attention, while the other is here published in full for the first time. The scant archaeological remains found in the tombs are also dealt with in detail. The two tombs are contemporary with that of the nomarch Ahanakht I, and offers a rare insight into the functioning of a nomarchal court in the early Middle Kingdom. The last chapter offers an analysis of this, and also advances a hypothesis on the way king Mentuhotep succeeded in integrating the Middle Egyptian provincial elites into the newly united kingdom.