Further observations on Ugarit and Egypt in the Early New Kingdom

A recent and elucidating article by Federico Zangani has rightly sought to integrate the name Ugarit into records of the earlier New Kingdom by associating the word IkAT of the Memphis and Karnak stele of Amenhotep II with Ugarit. The argument as to whether these texts mention historical Ugarit has undergone extensive debate by both Egyptian philologists and Semiticists, with several waves of revision and acceptance.The main point of dissension is whether the writing and phonetics of IkAT accurately transcribe Ugarit or rather another placename entirely. This small contribution builds on Zangani’s work and also proposes another possibility, that the Amenhotep II orthography is indicative of an earlier epoch of knowledge of Ugarit in the Middle Kingdom. It additionally clarifies the situation of writing foreign toponyms in this text and the period more generally.