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By donkey train to Kufra?—How Mr Meri went west

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Rudolph Kuper
Rudolph Kuper*
Affiliation:
Heinrich-Barth-Institut, Jennerstr. 8, D-50823 Köln, Germany. Fst.afrika@uni-koeln.de
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Extract

In 1990, about 30 km southwest of Dakhla oasis, the most remote settlement in Egypt’s Western Desert, a hieroglyphic rock inscription was discovered that turned out to be the first clear evidence of an Ancient Egyptian presence so far into the Sahara (Burkard 1997). The short text states that a higher official named Meri went out to meet (?) oasis dwellers. Details of translation, interpretation and palaeographic dating of the text are a matter of discussion among Egyptologists, but it clearly seems to be of Old or Early Middle Kingdom origin. The home of the ‘oasis dwellers’ can reasonably be inferred as lying further west or southwest. However, the nearest places with permanent water in these directions are the Kufra Oasis in Libya and the wells of Djebel Uweinat, which lie, respectively, some 600 km and 500 lan away. How was it possible to master such distances under the then already prevailing hyperarid conditions by the only available means of transportation, a train of donkeys that have to drink at least every three days?

Type
Special section
Information
Antiquity , Volume 75 , Issue 290 , December 2001 , pp. 801 - 802
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2001

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References

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