The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Naga ed-Deir, Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500 presents the results of excavations directed by George A. Reisner and led by Arthur C. Mace. The site of Naga ed-Deir, Egypt, is unusual for its continued use over a long period of time (c. 3500 BCE–650 CE). Burials in N 2000 and N 2500 date to the First Intermediate Period/Middle Kingdom and the Coptic era. In keeping with Reisner’s earlier publications of Naga ed-Deir, this volume presents artifacts in chapter-length studies devoted to a particular object type and includes a burial-by-burial description. The excavators’ original drawings, notes, and photographs are complemented by a contemporary analysis of the objects by experts in their subfields.

Beginning in 1901, George A. Reisner conducted a number of excavating campaigns in the neighbourhood of the modern village of Naga ed-Der in Upper Egypt, opposite the ancient city of Thinis, at first for the Hearst Expedition of the University of California (up to 1905) and thereafter for the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition.0Naga ed-Der is important because of a series of ancient cemeteries extending in time from the Predynastic period to the Middle Kingdom. These cemeteries run for about six kilometres from Sheikh Farag on the north to Mesheikh on the south and form parts of a single large cemetery of the Thinite nome UE 8. In the course of the excavations at Naga ed-Der, Reisner discovered in addition extensive remains of the First Intermediate period-decorated tombs, steles, and inscribed coffins-belonging to the period extending from the end of the Sixth to the Eleventh Dynasties. The Predynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom material from Naga ed-Der has been studied and published by Reisner and Arthur C. Mace and by Albert M. Lythgoe and Dows Dunham. Dows Dunham published seventy-five steles from Reisner's excavations in 1937.0This volume endeavours to date the material found by Reisner, including the inscribed stones published by Dunham, with a view to elucidating the history of the site in the period between the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Furthermore, a number of steles seen on the art market or in museums or private collections which, by their style, belong clearly to Naga ed-Der, have been added as supplementary material.