From the DOP Petroglyph Unit archives: an Old Kingdom “dancing girl” image from Site 30/450-E4-6

Abstract

The rock art discovered in the 1980s and 1990s by the Dakhleh Oasis Project Petroglyph Unit for the most part unpublished or only briefly mentioned in reports. The paper—the first of a planned series—offers a description and brief comparative study of a petroglyph showing a woman with a plait-and-disk hairstyle, found in the southeastern part of the oasis. The contextual information given for the petroglyph includes a description of the site. Selected features of the petroglyph are discussed. A comparative study of the decoration of nearly 30 tombs, containing figures with similarly rendered hairstyles, helps to explain the various attributes of the petroglyph and discuss its chronology.