| | Theban Desert Road Survey in the Egyptian Western Desert, Vol. 1: Gebel Tjauti Rock Inscriptions 1-45 and Wadi El-Hol Rock Inscriptions 1-45.
by A.J. Peden Theban Desert Road Survey in the Egyptian Western Desert, vol. 1: Gebel Tjauti Rock Inscriptions 1-45 and Wadi el-Hol Rock Inscriptions 1-45. By JOHN COLEMAN DARNELL, with the assistance of Deborah Darnell. Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 119. Chicago: THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE, 2002. Pp. 1vi + 174; figures, plates. $75. This elegantly assembled volume, stoutly bound, is the culmination of nearly a decade's hard work in the arid desert plateau west of modern-day Luxor by the husband and wife team of John and Deborah Darnell. Since the early 1990s the Darnells, with the assistance of other members of the Theban Desert Road Survey, have been engaged in the long and arduous business of plotting the many new rock-drawings and inscriptions which they have found at Gebel Tjauti, an ancient caravan stop on the Alamat Tal Road in the Western Desert of the Thebaid. In short their findings have been nothing less than sensational. Here, well laid out with copious illustrations (as befits its subject matter), are the rock-inscriptions of this inhospitable region as traced and copied by the Darnells with tremendous care and enthusiasm. It is a very real triumph, as these texts are frequently found in the most awkwardly placed locations and are commonly difficult to record and publish accurately. Based on repeated collations, this initial volume is the first of a series intended to cover several hundred rock-graffiti on the Farshut and Alamat Tal routes that cut across the elbow of the high desert jutting eastward into the Nile's course, between Hu and Abydos in the north, Coptos to the east, and Thebes on the south. This volume was originally planned just to publish the materials from the site of Gebel Tjauti, but inevitable delays in press gave the authors an opportunity to include an equal installment of material from Wadi el-Hol. In addition to its many excellent photographic plates and accompanying line-drawings, the book has an impressive bibliography, a full glossary, and short general index. As for the core section of the book with its text-notes and detailed commentary, no desk-bound reviewer can expect to improve on readings simply from studying the published photographs, no matter how good they are. Thus, my comments below will more modestly seek to note highlights in this work, with limited further observations. As a result of the Darnells' endeavors, it is now known that Gebel Tjauti has ancient depictions and texts ranging in date from the Predynastic period through the Coptic era. The majority of its scenes and rock-inscriptions, however, date to the turbulent years of the First Intermediate Period/early Dynasty XI and late Middle Kingdom/Second Intermediate Period, when sustained political weakness and strife in the Nile Valley appears to have led to the dramatic upturn in activity (and in particular military activity) in the Western Desert. At Gebel Tjauti, the oldest notable find (GT1) is from the period just before Dynasty I, where a set of rock-drawings includes a man with a captive and falcon-signs. One of these, set above a drawing of a scorpion, has tempted the authors to identify this group as reading, "Horus (king) Scorpion." This may be so, but it remains rather uncertain as there is no serekh-frame around the scorpion-sign. (1) Another such inscription (GT2) on the other hand does have a clear early-style serekh, topped with a Horus-falcon. This the authors attribute to King Narmer. However, the serekh here seems to contain only vertical striations, perhaps more consistent with a reading, "Djer." Moving ahead in time, of special importance is GT6, a badly eroded rock-stela left by the nomarch and governor of Upper Egypt, Tjauti (the modern-day site is named after him), a representative of the Herakleopolitan Dynasty IX-X who "made this (road) for crossing this desert, which the ruler of another nome had closed off." With the Darnells it is almost inevitable to identify this opposing nomarch as the ruler of the Theban nome immediately southward--and probably with the nomarch Intef who preceded Dynasty XI proper. The Darnells' commentary (pp. 30-37) on this rock-stela and its era is particularly illuminating. Very fittingly the next text in the series, GT7, is a brief but evocative inscription recording Tjauti's rivals, "the assault-force of the Son of Re, Intef." In this context it is highly likely that we have here our first original historical text of the reign of Sehertawy Intef I, ... | |
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