Maybe. The Middle Kingdom was the time during which the Fayyum came (back?) into its own, and stayed there. The size of the lake has varied much over the centuries, but during Graeco-Roman times it was a pretty popular place to live. If I had to speculate, okay, okay, quit twisting my arm, I’d say that the Egyptians who eventually produced the Middle Kingdom pharaohs wound up in the Fayyum when they had to regroup after the Old Kingdom fell and Egypt declined into the 1st IP.
If the dating of these new finds holds up, it’ll make sense, since there was Lake Tritonis to the west of Egypt, and other proto-Egyptian finds are found in that direction, rather than upriver or downriver (either of which would make more sense had the climate conditions been the same then as they are now) or along it.
Other oldies but goodies...
Tell Ibrahim Awad:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/predns.htm
structure of Khasekhemwy:
http://www.hierakonpolis.org/site/fort.html
thanks for the links, I'll follow them up...and btw, it does all make sense now.