View source for Itjtawy

{{Infobox ancient site
| name =  Itjtawy
| native_name =
| alternate_name =
| image =  Planche 28 Monuments Historiques (1872) - TIMEA.jpg
| alt =
| caption =  The stela Cairo CG 20516, dated to Amenemhat I's regnal year 30, contains the earliest known mention of Itjtawy<ref name=arnold>{{cite journal |author=Arnold, Dorothea|author-link=Dorothea Arnold
|url=https://www.academia.edu/5344656
|title=Amenemhat I and the Early Twelfth Dynasty at Thebes |journal=Metropolitan Museum Journal |volume=26 |pages=5–48 |year=1991 |doi=10.2307/1512902 |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |jstor=1512902|s2cid=191398579
}}</ref><ref name=janosi>{{cite journal |doi=10.1086/met.45.41558050 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Montuhotep_Nebtawyre_and_Amenemhat_I_The_Metropolitan_Museum_Journal_v_45_2010 |title=Montuhotep-Nebtawyre and Amenemhat I: Observations on the Early Twelfth Dynasty in Egypt |journal=Metropolitan Museum Journal |volume=45 |pages=7–20 |year=2010 |last1=Jánosi |first1=Peter |s2cid=192546924 }}</ref>
| map_type =
| coordinates = {{coord|29|34|13|N|31|13|52|E|type:city|display=inline,title}}
| location = [[Faiyum Governorate]], [[Egypt]]
| region =
| type =
| epochs =
}}
'''Itjtawy''' or '''It-Towy'''<ref name=janosi/> ("Seizer of the [[Two Lands]]"), also known by its full name '''Amenemhat-itjtawy''' ("Amenemhat seizes the Two Lands"), was an [[ancient Egypt]]ian royal city established by [[pharaoh]] [[Amenemhat I]].<ref name=snape>{{cite book |last=Snape|first=Steven|year=2014|title=The Complete Cities of Ancient Egypt|location=|publisher=Thames & Hudson|ISBN=978-0-500-77240-9}}</ref>{{rp|266}}
As yet, Itjtawy’s exact location remains [[lost city|unidentified]]. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the site lies beneath cultivated fields east of the [[Pyramid of Amenemhat I|pyramids of Amenemhat I]] and [[Pyramid of Senusret I|Senusret I]] at [[Lisht]].<ref name=snape/>{{rp|266}}<br>
There is evidence that Amenemhat, the founder of the [[12th Dynasty]] who ruled approximately 1991 to 1962 BC, established Itjtawy during his [[regnal year]] 20, replacing [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] as the [[capital of Egypt]].<ref name=arnold/> However, the earliest known mention of Itjtawy is dated to the pharaoh’s regnal year 30 (ten years later its presumed foundation), and is represented by the double-dated stela CG 20516 now in [[Cairo Museum]].<ref name=arnold/><ref name=janosi/><br>
Relocation of the capital may have been a strategic move. The site for Itjtawy – hundreds of miles down the [[Nile]] from Thebes – may have been chosen for its proximity to the source of [[Canaan|Asiatic]] incursions into Egypt, in order to help prevent further attacks.<ref>{{Cite book | editor-last =Shaw | editor-first =Ian | title =The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt | year =2000  | pages =159 | place =Oxford | publisher =Oxford University Press | isbn =978-0-19-280458-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=092jP1lBhtoC&pg=PA159 }}</ref>
[[File:Itjtawy.png|thumb|The name of Itjtawy as it appears on the aforementioned stele, surrounded by a fortified enclosure]]
Since the determinative sign for Itjtawy is that of a fortified enclosure instead of the conventional [[Townsite-city-region (hieroglyph)|city hieroglyph]], Egyptologist Steven Snape suggested that Itjtawy was a "disembedded capital", a small center comprising administrative buildings and a [[royal residence]], inhabited only by the administrative staff who ran those buildings; the major economic and cultural centers remained pre-existing cities such as [[Men-nefer|Memphis]] and Thebes.<ref name=snape/>{{rp|266}}
Itjtawy retained its capital status during the 12th Dynasty and well into the [[13th Dynasty]] at least until the rule of [[Merneferre Ay]], the last pharaoh of the dynasty who is attested by objects from outside of [[Upper Egypt]]. It is believed that at this point the invasion of Lower Egypt by populations from [[Canaan]] occurred, which led to the fall of the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] into the [[Second Intermediate Period]]; the pharaohs of the 13th Dynasty thus abandoned Itjtawy and retreated back to Thebes in the south.<ref name="bentor">Daphna Ben Tor: ''Sequences and chronology of Second Intermediate Period royal-name scarabs, based on excavated series from Egypt and the Levant'', in: ''The Second Intermediate Period (Thirteenth-Seventeenth Dynasties), Current Research, Future Prospects'' edited by Marcel Maree, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 192, 2010</ref>{{rp|91}}
==See also==
* [[List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{succession box
| title = [[List of historical capitals of Egypt|Historical capital of Egypt]]
| before = [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]]
| after = Thebes<br>[[Avaris]]
| years = 1985–1700 BC
}}
{{s-end}}
[[Category:20th-century BC establishments]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 2nd millennium BC]]
[[Category:Cities in ancient Egypt]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Egypt]]
[[Category:Lost ancient cities and towns]]
[[Category:Former capitals of Egypt]]
[[Category:Amenemhat I]]