The Theban Desert Road Survey is an archaeological research project operated in conjunction with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture's

Supreme Council for Antiquities The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA; ) was established in 1994, responsible for the conservation, protection, and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavations in Egypt. From 1994 to 2011, the SCA was a department of the Egyptia ...

that is being conducted in the Western Desert in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

that focuses on the ancient connections between Thebes and such settlements as the Kharga Oasis. The project uses

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

to identify roads and caravan trails that were used in antiquity to identify possible sites of previously unknown communities. Established in 1991 by

Egyptologists This is a partial list of Egyptologists. An Egyptologist is any archaeologist, historian, linguist, or art historian who specializes in Egyptology, the scientific study of Ancient Egypt and its antiquities. Demotists are Egyptologists who speciali ...

Deborah Darnell and her then-husband

John Coleman Darnell John Coleman Darnell (born August 1962) is an American Egyptologist. Biography Darnell attributes his interest in archaeology to his mother, who also had a lifelong interest in archaeology. He grew up in south Alabama and had a particular intere ...

, the survey project grew substantially when it gained the support of

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1998. The Theban Desert Road Survey has discovered sites from

Predynastic Egypt Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt was the period of time starting at the first human settlement and ending at the First Dynasty of Egypt around 3100 BC. At the end of prehistory, "Predynastic Egypt" is traditionally defined as the period ...

, including substantial caches of pottery and other artifacts. The project was begun by Deborah Darnell and

, who started searching along caravan trails in the Western Desert west of

Luxor Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...

in the early 1990s under an approach they described as desert road archaeology.Pringle, Heather
"The Lost City: A discovery in the desert could rewrite the history of ancient Egypt."
''Yale Alumni Magazine'', September / October 2010. Accessed May 13, 2020. Among their discoveries are inscriptions found at

Wadi el-Hol Wadi el-Hol is a valley on the Farshut Road crossing the Qena Bend between Thebes, Egypt, Thebes and Hu, Egypt, Hiw, on the west bank of the river Nile in Egypt. Wadi el-Hol Inscriptions The Wadi el-Hol inscriptions are two rock inscriptions which ...

, dating back 3,800 years, which are in the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet, some of the earliest known examples of phonetic alphabetic writing, in contrast to the pictographs used in

Egyptian hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined Ideogram, ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct char ...

.Baker, Dorie
"Finding sheds new light on the alphabet's origins"
''Yale Bulletin & Calendar'', December 13, 1999-January 17, 2000. Volume 28, Number 16. Accessed May 13, 2020. In 2010,

Zahi Hawass Zahi Abass Hawass (; born May 28, 1947) is an Egyptians, Egyptian archaeology, archaeologist, Egyptology, Egyptologist, and former Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Egypt), Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, a position he held twice. He has ...

announced that the team had found a site of a major residential and military center at Kharga Oasis at the end of the Girga Road dating back 3,500 years, the earliest known urban development in the Egyptian desert. The initial finds were made around the year 2000 providing evidence of a Persian outpost near a temple dating to over 2,500 years old, which led the Darnells to conclude that the site must be one of some importance. Other finds at the site showed pottery that indicated that there had been trade over a wide area and that there had been intensive baking operations and "large-scale ceramic production", all signs that the site had been a major settlement in antiquity. Wilford, John Noble
"Desert Roads Lead to Discovery in Egypt"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', September 6, 2010. Accessed May 13, 2020. At the site named Umm Mawagir (أم مواجير,"mother of bread

mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal ...

s" in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

), the Darnells discovered a substantial cache of bread molds, grinding stones and other baking implements, with a total of 1,000 lb of objects found, more than enough material to be "baking enough bread to feed an army" at a site with a population in the thousands during the period from 1650 BCE to 1550 BCE, a thousand years before any other known settlement in the area of the Kharga Oasis. The site "completely explains the rise and importance of Thebes", as that city's control over the oasis communities to its west at Kharga and Dakhla Oasis allowed it to retain control of the area and to avoid the incursions of the

Hyksos The Hyksos (; Egyptian language, Egyptian ''wikt:ḥqꜣ, ḥqꜣ(w)-wikt:ḫꜣst, ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''heqau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands"), in modern Egyptology, are the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt ( ...

who controlled the

Nile Delta The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...

to the north and the

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

n people of

Kerma Kerma was the capital city of the Kerma culture, which was founded in present-day Sudan before 3500 BC. Kerma is one of the largest archaeological sites in ancient Nubia. It has produced decades of extensive excavations and research, including t ...

to the south.Baker, Dorie
"Ancient 'Lost' Egyptian City Discovered By Yale Archaeologists"

press release dated August 26, 2010. Accessed May 13, 2020.

Publications

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References

{{Reflist 1991 establishments in Egypt Projects established in 1991 Archaeology of Egypt Egyptology Proto-Sinaitic script Western Desert (Egypt) Thebes, Egypt Projects in Africa