Ta-Seti (''Land of the bow'', also Ta Khentit, ''the Frontier'' or ''Borderland'') was the first nome (administrative division) of

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...

, one of 42 nomoi in Ancient Egypt., Egypt Ancient.net, accessdate=2010-07-14
Egypt tourist authority, accessdate=2010-07-14, Ancient Egyptian religion, Philae.net, accessdate=2010-07-14
Reshafim.org, accessdate=2010-07-14
Aldokan.com, accessdate=2010-07-14
Digital Egypt for Universities, accessdate=2010-07-14 Ta-Seti marked the border area towards

Nubia Nubia () ( Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sud ...

, and the name was also used to refer to Nubia itself.

History

Every nome was ruled by a

nomarch A nomarch ( grc, νομάρχης, egy, ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ Great Chief) was a provincial governor in ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called nomes (singular , plural ). A nomarch was the government official responsib ...

(provincial governor), who answered directly to the

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...

. The area of the district was about 2 ''cha-ta'' (about 5.5 hectare / 4.8 acres; 1 cha-ta equals roughly 2.75 hectare / 2.4 acres) and about 10,5 ''iteru'' (about 112 km / 69,6 miles, 1 iteru equals roughly 10,5 km / 6.2 miles) in length.
Faszination Ägypten (in German), accessdate=2010-07-14 The ''Niwt'' (main city) was Abu /

Elephantine Elephantine ( ; ; arz, جزيرة الفنتين; el, Ἐλεφαντίνη ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological sites on the island were inscribed on the UNESCO ...

(part of modern Aswan) and among other cities were P'aaleq / Philae (modern

Philae ; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ , alternate_name = , image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg , alt = , caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...

), Sunet / Syene (modern Aswan) and Pa-Sebek / Omboi (modern

Kom Ombo Kom Ombo (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic: ; Ancient Greek: or ; or Latin: and is an agricultural town in Egypt famous for the Temple of Kom Ombo. It was originally an Egyptian city called Nubt, meaning City of Gold (not to be confused with th ...

). Every ''niwt'' had a ''Het net'' (temple) dedicated to the chief

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

and a ''Heqa het'' (nomarchs residence). The district's main deity was

Horus Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the ...

and among others major deities were Anuket,

Arensnuphis Arensnuphis (in Egyptian: Iryhemesnefer, ''ỉrỉ-ḥms-nfr'', "the good companion") is a deity from the Kingdom of Kush in ancient Nubia, first attested at Musawwarat el-Sufra in the 3rd century BC. His worship spread to the Egyptian-controlle ...

Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky ...

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

, Khnum, Mandulis, Satet and

Sobek Sobek (also called Sebek or Sobki, cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲕ, Souk) was an ancient Egyptian deity with a complex and elastic history and nature. He is associated with the Nile crocodile or the West African crocodile and is represented either in its f ...

. Today the area is part of the Aswan Governorate. Historical texts from the

Middle Kingdom of Egypt The Middle Kingdom of Egypt (also known as The Period of Reunification) is the period in the history of ancient Egypt following a period of political division known as the First Intermediate Period. The Middle Kingdom lasted from approximately ...

mention the mother of Amenemhat I, founder of the Twelfth Dynasty, being from the Elephantine Egyptian nome Ta-Seti. Many scholars have argued that Amenemhat I's mother was of Nubian origin. The identity of the Ta-Seti people has not yet been definitively established. From what is known today, the Ta-Seti are believed to have spoken a

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. ...

language.

Nomarchs of Ta-Seti

The following is a partial genealogy of the nomarchs of Ta-Seti during the

12th Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some ...

. The nomarchs are underlined.

References

*Helck, Wolfgang; Westendorf, Wolfhart: ''Lexikon der Ägyptologie''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1977. {{ISBN, 3-447-01876-3

External links

About the nomoi of EgyptHieroglyphs of the nomoi
Nomes of ancient Egypt