Abstract:

The region of the First Cataract of the River Nile has been a crossroads of people and ideas since deep prehistory. By the end of the fourth millennium BCE, it became the southern border with Nubia of the ancient Egyptian state, the earliest-known territorial polity in history. An exceptionally rich corpus of rock art marks the regional landscape, both along the Nile and in the desert hinterland. The earliest depictions date back to the Late Pleistocene, while the youngest is of the modern age. The artistic productions dated to the state formation period (fourth/early third millennia BCE) are particularly abundant and of great interest. Most rock art links to the mainstream ancient Egyptian culture; however, hints are detectable for productions associated with other groups and agencies. The talk will provide an overview of the current scholarship, drawing on the ongoing investigation by the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project – AKAP. This joint venture between the University of Bologna and Yale University has been working in the region since 2005. With a supra-regional perspective, the talk will address some of the research questions AKAP aims to answer.