Theban Desert Road Survey II

Book excerpt: The second monograph devoted to the work of the Theban Desert Road Survey presents the major rock inscriptions of the northwestern Theban Desert and the western hinterlands of Qamula. The material includes six larger sites and several smaller collections and individual inscriptions and images, sites discovered by the Theban Desert Road Survey over the course of approximately twelve field seasons. The major groupings of inscriptions, from south to north, are the rock shrine of Pahu and the inscriptions of Gebel Akhenaton, sites in the vicinity of the Wadi Himdaniya; a small but interesting collection of inscriptions near the Wadi Arqub Baghla, with two smaller, outlying sites; inscriptions of the Wadi Magar to the north, including the site of the great Predynastic tableau with its plethora of crocodiles, the associated vignette of Elephant-on-the-Gebel, along with the nearby Gebel Sutekh site, and smaller concentrations beyond; and finally the inscriptions of the area of the Matna el-Barqa. Highlights of the epigraphic material include new prayers to Amun and Hathor-one a genuine New Kingdom de profundis recording an appeal to Amun during a storm on the Nile-several important Predynastic and Protodynastic tableaux, and the only rock art depictions of Akhenaton in a true Amarna style.