Umm El Qa'ab

Umm El Qa'ab

Arabic: أم القعاب
General view of area, showing littering of pots
Shown within Northeast Africa Show map of Northeast Africa Umm El Qa'ab (Egypt) Show map of Egypt
Location	Egypt
Region	New Valley Governorate
Coordinates	26°10.5′N 31°54.5′E / 26.1750°N 31.9083°E / 26.1750; 31.9083

Peqer in hieroglyphs

Umm El Qaʻāb (sometimes romanised Umm El Gaʻab, Arabic: أم القعاب) is a necropolis of the Early Dynastic Period^[1] kings at Abydos, Egypt.^[2] Its modern name means "Mother of Pots" as the whole area is littered with the broken pot shards of offerings made in earlier times. The cultic ancient name of the area was (w-)pkr or (rꜣ-)pkr "District of the pkr[-tree]" (an unidentified species) or "Opening of the pkr[-tree]" (Coptic: upoke), belonging to tꜣ-dsr "the secluded/cleared land" (necropolis) or crk-hh "Binding of Eternity" (Coptic: Alkhah).

The area was a site of veneration and worship in ancient Egypt, and by the time of the Middle Kingdom, at least one of the royal tombs was excavated and rebuilt for the priests of Osiris.^[3]

The tombs of this area were first excavated by Émile Amélineau in the 1890s and more systematically by Flinders Petrie between 1899 and 1901.^[3] Since then the area has been excavated repeatedly by the German Archaeological Institute since the 1970s, which has allowed for a thorough reconstruction of the original layout and appearance of these tombs.^[3]