Ankhtawy: notes on its nature and location between the Old and New Kingdoms

Landscapes are dynamic and changing realities at a geographical and cognitive level that should be studied in detail in their synchronic and diachronic aspects for the correct understanding of their role in human societies. This paper presents a case study of the toponym Ankhtawy (ꜥnḫ-tꜢwj), the ‘Life of the Two Lands’, located in the Memphite region since the Third Millennium BC. Thanks to a combination of written, archaeological, geomorphological and palaeoenvironmental evidence, an analysis has been carried out that considers the scarce and not very detailed previous studies, the topography associated with the toponym, its spellings and possible meanings and its associated deities, together with new archaeological, geomorphological and paleoenvironmental evidence. It has been found that at first Ankhtawy could not designate (part of) the city of Memphis or its necropolis, but the Wadi Abusir; only in a later date it would designate the necropolitan and cultic area of the desert of North Saqqara.