Egyptologists have found the name of a dog that lived 3,500 years ago in ancient Egypt.

The name is Duaty (written dwȝ.ty in hieroglyphs), and it was read by Chelsea Kaufman, whose study appeared in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology and was reported in late October 2026. It is painted beside a white, collared dog in a tomb at Luxor's Theban necropolis, about 500 km south of Cairo. The owner is named as User in one report and as a scribe in another, so I'd treat that detail as unsettled.

The name means "He-of-the-Underworld" and is an epithet of Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the dead. The tomb had been studied before, but the inscription was too faded to read until Kaufman used DStretch, a plug-in that enhances faded images. Earlier scholars had read two other dog names in the same tomb, Kenii ("Strong One") and Maaty ("Trusty"). Kaufman also notes that the dog is shown seated, and only one other known Egyptian dog name uses a seated-dog sign.

Why the name was chosen is still open. Kaufman suggests it may mean the dog had already died when the tomb was painted, which she herself calls speculation. The painting and name together may have been meant to keep the dog present in the afterlife.

For the original reporting, see The Art Newspaper's article. Nearly 100 ancient Egyptian dog names are now known, so this is a welcome addition to a small list.

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