The Eastern Desert of Upper Egypt: Routes and Inscriptions

The History of the Peoples of the Eastern Desert

“…Since predynastic times (Table 1.2) people from the Nile Valley have explored the Eastern Desert for gold and ornamental stone for vessels, statues and buildings, and traversed the area on their way to and from the Red Sea. In their wake they have left textual and pictorial evidence, including petroglyphs and graffiti (Winkler 1938;Bernand 1977;Hoffman 1979;Redford and Redford 1989;Huyge 1998;Rothe and Miller 1999;Luft 2010;Espinel, this volume;Lankester, this volume), as well as settlement sites with associated structures, archaeological finds, graves and connecting routes (Meredith 1958;Murray 1967;Gundlach 1977;Sayed 1980;Bell et al 1984;Zitterkopf and Sidebotham 1989;Klemm and Klemm 1993;Castiglioni et al 1995;Meyer 1995;Sidebotham and Wendrich 1996;Peacock and Maxfield 1997;Sidebotham andWendrich 1998, 1999;Harrell et al 2000;Nicholson and Shaw 2000;Sidebotham and Wendrich 2000;Klemm et al 2001;Sidebotham et al 2001;Friedman 2002;Bard and Fattovich 2003;Sidebotham et al 2004 Wendrich 2007;Sidebotham et al 2008). Among the more notable Pharaonic records on the Eastern Desert, apart from many scattered mines, quarries and inscriptions, are the remains of an ancient port at Marsa Gawasis (sometimes referred to as Wadi Gasus), near modern Safaga (Figure 1.11).…”

“…From Berenike (23°N 54' 37.1" / 35°E 28' 25.1"), there were overland routes through the Eastern Desert to the Nile Valley. Along these routes was a string of hydreumata that provided the caravans with water, shelter and protection (Bell et al 1984;Sidebotham and Zitterkopf 1989;Zitterkopf and Sidebotham 1989;. 1 When the Nabataeans began to export incense 1 A hydreuma (plural hydreumata) is an enclosed, often fortified and usually permanently manned 'watering station' of Graeco-Roman date, providing a man-made oasis along a caravan route.…”

“…No visitor was allowed to leave the monastery without the knowledge of one of the guards (ghafir), who had the right to a share in the profits of the escort. In Roman times the Via Hadriana (completed in 137 CE) ran from Berenike to Myos Hormos, near modern Quseir, and then on to Antinoë (Antinoöpolis, present-day Shaykh Abada) in the Nile Valley (Murray 1925;Bell et al 1984;Zitterkopf and Sidebotham 1989;. From there it veered northeast, across the desert to the Christian monasteries of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul.…”

“…Developments that impacted in a considerable way on the occupants of the Eastern Desert include the exploitation by the Pharaonic state of the resources of the Eastern Desert, mostly ornamental stone and precious metals, for which many relatively large mining communities were created. Routes through the desert connecting the Nile Valley with these communities and harbor installations on the Red Sea coast were established and maintained (MacAlister 1900;Gundlach 1977;Bell et al 1984;Castiglioni et al 1995;Sadr 1997;Harrell et al 2000;Klemm et al 2001;Klemm et al 2002;Rivard et al 2002;Bloxam 2006;Harrell et al 2006;Bard and Fattovich 2007;Darnell 2008). Among the rich rock art galleries, there are many representations of Nile boats of both pre-Dynastic and Dynastic types and also figures who might represent gods worshipped in what we can now refer to as the Nile Valley farming heartland (Figure 31.4b;Chester 1892;Černý 1947;Bruyn 1958;Redford and Redford 1989;Huyge 2002b).…”

“…Around 275 BCE, Ptolemy II Philadelphus initiated a program to bring African elephants by boat from modern Sudan and Eritrea to southern Egypt, walk them across the Eastern Desert and train them in Edfu or elsewhere (Murray 1967;Murray and Warmington 1967;Scullard 1974;Sidebotham and Wendrich 1995). This program was not very successful and soon abandoned, but its related infrastructure of harbors, desert routes and way-stations was used for mining and trade with sub-Saharan Africa, Arabia Felix and India long afterwards (Meredith 1958;Murray 1967;Bernand 1977;Bell et al 1984;Zitterkopf and Sidebotham 1989;Sidebotham and Wendrich 1996bSidebotham et al 2008;Gates-Foster, this volume;Lassányi, this volume).…”