Epigraphic Documents from Mersa Gawasis: a Reassessment

The author presents some considerations on the different typologies of stelae discovered at Mersa Gawasis, the Middle Kingdom harbour on the Red Sea, and on their spatial and chronological distribution. Analyses of these data provide information both on the history of the site and on the evolution of the use of private stelae during the Middle Kingdom. On the base of the data presented in the paper, a new criterion is suggested also for chronological collocation of MK stelae, erected in sites connected to economic and trade activities, rather than in funerary and religious contexts. The effects of the administrative reorganization of the country on the Egyptian society and on its religious life – by the half of 12th dynasty - are identified among the most significant reasons of these changes.