On the date of the inscriptions of the Asyut nomarch Khety II

W. Schenkel’s theory of the Asyut nomarch Khety II’s being coeval with the earlier reign of the Theban king Mentuhotep I was based on two arguments: (a) Schenkel’s conclusion that the replacement of final w by y, attested in some nouns in Khety II’s inscriptions, first appeared in writing in Mentuhotep I’s reign; (b) the wide spread opinion that Khety II was the last Heracleopolitans’ henchman at Asyut. But neither of these arguments is valid any longer. The sound change w>y is now attested as early as in Old kingdom writing, and, moreover, spellings imAxy / imAxyt, used by W. Schenkel as dating criterion, seem to have borne no relation to this sound change. Rather, they may have been influenced by the memory of the final weak radical of the root * mAxi, from which, according to K. Jansen-Winkeln, the root imAx derives. The second argument by W. Schenkel is undermined by the discovery of the tomb of the «overseer of priests of Wepwawet, Lord of Asyut» it-ib=i-iqr, prepared for him by his son, msHti-iqr, bearing similar titles. Since it-ib=i-iqr was most likely a son of Khety II, now we have at least two successors of the latter. At the same time, there is not the slightest indication of their having to survive through the subjugation of their nome by Mentuhotep I, and M. El-Khadragy correctly assigns them to the Heracleopolitan rule. According to M. Zitman, to about the same period could also belong some other supposedly nomarchal tombs. Thus, Khety II certainly was not the Heracleopolitans’ last henchman at Asyut, and quite a long time span could separate him from the unification of Egypt by Mentuhotep I. It is also unlikely that the Heracleopolitan king Merikare, mentioned in the Khety II’s biographical inscription, reigned on the eve of the demise of the Heracleopolitan dynasty. He is the only First Intermediate Period pharaoh known to have built and maintained his pyramid in the Old Kingdom fashion, and the only Heracleopolitan referred to in biographical narratives and basilophorous names of his subjects. In the biography of Khety II, Merikare’s cartouche is even followed by the sign of the falcon of Horus on the perch - an honour extremely rare in the First Intermediate Period. On the false door of Ipi, a priest of Merikare’s pyramid, the latter is likely to be is adored as king deified. The propagation of copies of the «Teaching for Merikare» during dynasties XVIII and XIX, when Nebhapetre Mentuhotep was admired among the most venerated rulers of the past, would be inexplicable had the addressee of «Teaching» been remembered as his ill-fated antagonist.