Asyut: Guardian City

Abstract

• Few cities can claim as long and illustrious a history as Asyut, in Middle Egypt. Continuously inhabited for at least five thousand years, it ranks among the world's oldest urban centres, yet only now has Asyut begun to receive the scholarly and public attention it deserves. The 'guardian city' straddled the border between Upper and Lower Egypt, defending the frontier, and was often the decisive battlefield in ancient power struggles. Despite the conflict, the Asyut region was a trade emporium and cultural hub, where countless works of art were conceived and replicated for millennia. Recent collaborative, multifaceted fieldwork projects underway in the Asyut necropolis, the neighbouring village of Shutb and nearby Manqabad have shed new light on this once neglected region. Presenting both fieldwork findings and insights gained from the study of Asyut's material culture preserved in museums and institutions, this publication in both English and Arabic aims to share an appreciation of Asyut's outstanding achievements with readers around the world.