Our knowledge regarding the practice of land
lease in Egypt of the III–II millennia BC still remains very
patchy. To date, the oldest evidence of its existence are
considered to be the Heqanakht letters from the Middle
Kingdom. The article argues, however, that oblique references
to it occurred as early as in the First Intermediate
Period, and simply have not yet been recognized as
such. In the autobiographical inscription of the overseer
of butchers Merer, the collocation xtm AHwt is being
shown to be about land lease; Merer’s risk-management
strategy against too low inundations was akin to that of
Heqanakht. The situation reported in the inscription of the
overseer of priests Rehui (Manchester 5052) is reminiscent
of that described in the demotic literary story of Djedher (p
British Museum EA 69532, ll. 6−9).