Hwt jh(w)t,The Administration of the Western Delta and the ‘Libyan Question’ in the Third Millennium BC *

Abstract

Third millennium Hwt jh(w)t is a locality that stands apart from other Lower Egyptian sites. Its unique archaeological and epigraphic record provides an invaluable view of the role played by a Delta centre within the administrative and productive organisation of the kingdom in the third millennium bc. It thus appears that Hwt jh(w)t was a kind of checkpoint regulating access to grazing land and plant resources in the underpopulated Western Delta. Furthermore, this was a region where Libyan populations historically settled and exploited its pasture land. Finally, traces of exchange networks in the hands of both mobile desert populations (Libyans in the oases and the north, Nubians in the south) and autonomous Egyptians, apparently operating outside any institutional framework, are becoming increasingly evident across Egypt. The resulting picture is that of a complex interaction of partly complementary, partly competing interests involving nomad pastoral populations, Egyptian settlers, and the Pharaonic state. Occasional conflicts should therefore be interpreted in the light of such interests, as the consequence of competing strategies seeking to control local resources, exchange networks and flows of wealth. Thus, concepts such as ‘Libyan invasions’, stereotyped views of Libyans as poor wandering nomads, or the alleged contrast between sedentary Egyptians and nomad Libyans as distinct, opposed ethnic and productive entities should also be revised.