An early appearance of "hwt-w^crt" on a Seal impression from Tell el Dab'a
Ernst Czerny

Although seal-impressions bearing names and titles are very common finds in Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period settlement excavations, only very few have been found at Tell el-Dab'a. During the excavation of a Middle Kingdom settlement at the site of Ezbet Rushdi (in the north-east of Tell el-Dab'a), a well preserved papyrus-seal was discovered, showing the title and name of a mayor of Hwt-w^crt called Ameni-seneb. It came from a pit which cuts into the settlement layers from a now lost surface, which could be dated by the help of the pottery context to around the middle of the 13^th Dynasty, corresponding to strata G/1-3 or early statum F according to the general Tell el-Dab'a stratigraphy. Thus, it can be considered as an established fact that the site was called Hwt-w^crt already at that time and that it was governed by a mayor.