The "Battikh Promontory Complex": A caravan hub as a mirror of the colonization history of the Egyptian oasis of Dakhla (3rd millennium BC)

• Applicant: Dr. Heiko Riemer
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 549395283

Studies on colonisation processes are comparatively rare in archaeological discourse, presumably because they usually involve long-term developments over several epochs, which require extensive and persistent archaeological research in order to be able to trace developments of this kind with the necessary historical depth. The intensive interaction with unfamiliar landscapes, resources and possibly people of other traditions (e.g. local pastoral nomads) present the colonists with challenges and decision-making processes that are not covered by their own traditions and conventional experiences. The Dakhla Oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert is in many respects a particularly suitable research landscape for questions of early colonisation development and the associated social and economic dynamics. In no other Egyptian oasis has such a large number of archaeological sites already been well researched, which now makes it possible to identify colonisation phases in archaeological features and to depict them as space-time models. The investigation of a supply and logistics station in the eastern periphery of Dakhla, recently discovered by the applicant, which is referred to here as the Battikh Promontory Complex (BPC for short) and is to be regarded as the starting point of a previously unknown caravan corridor, will provide extensive new insights into the historical development of logistics and connections between the oasis colony and the Nile Valley in the 3rd millennium BC. Apart from the three larger settlements (Ayn Asil, Mut el-Kharab and Ayn el-Gazareen), the logistical facilities known so far in the Dakhla Oasis, such as extraction sites for raw materials and stations for supplying or controlling the caravan routes, are mostly simple and temporary facilities for specific endeavours. The BPC, on the other hand, proves to be a huge logistical hub for communication and goods traffic between the oasis and the Nile Valley, which, according to random analyses of the pottery finds in 2022, has an extremely long period of use, beginning at the latest in the early Old Kingdom and extending to the early Middle Kingdom. In contrast to earlier assumptions (Giddy 1987), intensive use of the Darb el Tawil – the shortest, most direct connection between Dakhla and the Egyptian centre of power in Memphis – for heavy caravans has proven to be unsuitable according to the latest investigations. This is a further indication that the Battikh Promontory Road is to be regarded as the main route for goods transport in ancient Egyptian times. With the BPC, new and important information can be generated on the development of the oases and their economic dependence or independence from the Nile Valley.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Egypt
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Nader El-Hassanin Abdelaal Ibrahim