Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

Pepinakht, called Heqaib, was an expedition leader of the late 6^th Dynasty. Recent fieldwork in Elephantine has revealed some objects that suggest it was customary to perform processions, which started at the ka-chapels in the administrative center of Elephantine, for the mortuary cult of a number of late Old Kingdom officials, among them Pepinakht/Heqaib. Heqaib’s sanctuary is an excellent example of the cult of a private person who had the characteristics of a saint, within a settlement context in the Middle Kingdom and the early 2^nd Intermediate Period. The sanctuary was a place of pilgrimage of supra-regional importance and has revealed a well-dated series of extraordinary Middle Kingdom sculpture, stelae, and shrines.