The beginnings of town life at Kom Ombo: People and institutions of the Old Kingdom through their sealings

Since 2017, an Egyptian-Austrian joint mission explores the early town of Kom Ombo in Southern Egypt. Among the most numerous finds from the yearly excavations rank seal impressions which were recorded on around 1000 sealings. About 60% of them are impressed with cylinder seals and bear the only texts related the Old Kingdom town known so far. This talk discusses the evidence from the beginnings of the city in the 2nd Dynasty until the end of the Old Kingdom sigillographic tradition in the 6th Dynasty. The sealings from this period provide an excellent case study on the economic development of the city and its surroundings. Indeed, they allow for combining epigraphic data with the impressions of the containers to which the sealings were fixed and their archaeological context. For example, they do not only mention the royal dependents (ḥm.w-nzw) “Jackal-of-the-food” and “Slender-Bee”, two of the earliest historical inhabitants of Kom Ombo known by their names; but they also showcase their role in the transport of goods from the hinterland to the city and the final discharge of their packaging on the edge of the Nile. A large corpus of institutional seal impressions with the names of the kings Userkaf, Sahura and Neferirkara is especially relevant for the history of Upper Egypt in the Old Kingdom, because they mention the main local institutions and thus, clarify the role of the town within the centralized economy of the 5th Dynasty. Throughout the talk, the sealings Kom Ombo will be compared to other corpora from contemporary sites such as Buhen, Elephantine, Hierakonpolis and el-Kab among. This analysis reveals striking similarities and differences in the material of the different town which might precise our current understanding of the urban organisation in the southermost Upper Egyptian provinces