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Pepinakht Heqaib

Entrance of the tomb of Heqaib at Qubbet el-Hawa
Entrance of the tomb of Heqaib at Qubbet el-Hawa
Pepinakht Heqaib, whose  "good  (or  familiar)  name"  was  Heqaib ("ruler of my heart"), was a major official at Elephantine island , an  island in the Nile River near Aswan, during the reign of King Pepy II (2278-2184). His  principal  title  was  "Overseer  of  Foreigners"  (i.e.,  mercenaries).  A  rather bellicose "autobiographical" inscription in his tomb at Qubbet el-Hawa  (Aswan)  indicates  that  he  was  primarily  responsible  for  controlling the military situation in Nubia and the Eastern Desert at  a  time  when  the  attacks—presumably  by  the  new  C-Group  population—on  Egyptian  expeditions  to  the  south  and  east  were  increasing.  The  king  dispatched  him  to  devastate  ("hack  up")  the  Lower Nubian districts of Wawat and Irtjet, and Pepinakht reports  killing  numbers  of  Nubians  and  bringing  back  some  unspecified  number  of  captives,  along  with  their  cattle  as  booty.  On  another  campaign,  he  claims  to  have  brought  back  the  chiefs  of  these  districts,  their  children,  and  members  of  their  entourages.  Subsequently, Pepinakht was sent to the Red Sea coast to recover  the bodies of an expedition leader named Ankhty and his men, who,  while  building  a  boat  there  for  a  trip  to  the  land  of  Punt  (on  the  Somali coast), had been murdered by the locals. Pepinakht drove off  the tribesmen, trumpeting that he had "set the fear of Horus [i.e., the  king] in the foreign countries," thereby pacifying them. In addition  to  his  military  activities,  Pepinakht Heqaib  performed  administrative  functions  in  the  pyramid  complexes  of  both  King Merenre and King Pepy II.

Pepinakht Heqaib  appears  to  have  enjoyed  a  considerable  reputation in the Aswan region, for at some time after his death, he  was deified and became the object of a cult among the officials at  Elephantine  that  lasted  until  the  Middle Kingdom.  Excavations  carried  out  principally  by  Labib  Habachi  and  inscriptions  in  the  tombs  of  later  officials  indicate  that  a  series  of  shrines,  complete  with  altars  and  statues,  had  been  built  on  Elephantine  Island  in  Heqaib's honor.

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