Zawyet Sultan. First preliminary report. Survey of seasons 2015, 2017, 2019

The article presents preliminary results of archaeological surveys, conducted between 2015 and 2019 at Hebenu, modern Zawyet Sultan, located eight kilometres south of el-Minya. Hebenu was the capital of the Sixteenth Upper Egyptian nome in Pharaonic times. Evidence of occupation dates from the Predynastic period to late Old Kingdom and from the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty to the early Islamic period. Results of the surveys include the creation of a contour line map of the site, a preliminary assessment of the spatial distribution of shaft tombs across the main site (zone 1), the discovery of new rock tombs and of a falcon statue (zone 2), the discovery of a cemetery of the early Old Kingdom (zone 5), selected features in the quarry zone (zone 6), a settlement profile close to the river (zone 7) and cemeteries of the New Kingdom and the Roman period (zone 8). Selected features mentioned in previous excavation reports have been re-identified in the field, georeferenced and are commented upon. Adjacent areas have been inspected briefly: the Predynastic site at Sawadah has disappeared, and two new limestone monoliths have been discovered c. five km E/SE of Zawyet Sultan. Investigation of objects, previously excavated at Zawyet Sultan, has begun in the Louvre Museum and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.