The god Khentamentiu was protector of the very old royal cemetery in Abydos in Upper Egypt and is attested for already at the time of the unification of the lands around 3100 B.C. He was a jackal with a bushy tail. In the yellow box (picture left) from a first dynasty seal, he is flanking the name of (the dead) king Narmer.
Sometimes he was called "the Foremost of the Westerners" meaning the most prominent of the gods for the other side of earthly life. In the Middle Kingdom he became directly connected to the cult of Osiris, the great god of the Underworld, and the life after death.
He was a protective god of the dead, and overseer of tombs. Sometimes he could be wrongly mixed up with two relatives of his, Anubis and Wepwawet (see them).
Unlike these he was never depicted with a human body, always just as a jackal.
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