The Darb el-Tawil: A caravan route across the Egyptian Western Desert and its potential for methods and concepts in desert road archaeology

• Applicant: Dr. Heiko Riemer
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies ; Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2015 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 291189480

Although concepts of mobility and trade are integral to approaches in archaeology, scholars have rarely dealt explicitly with desert caravan transport and related road networks. The present research programme focusses on evaluating potentials and developing conceptual approaches of a “Desert Road Archaeology”, based on a landscape survey and test excavations along the Darb el-Tawil (“the long road”). The Darb el-Tawil in Egypt constituted one of the main arteries of the Eastern Sahara for transport and communication, leading from the Nile Valley across some 250 km of rugged limestone desert to Dakhla Oasis. As the most direct route, it facilitated the colonization of this oasis during the Old Kingdom and the expansion of Egyptian interests into regions of sub-Saharan Africa.Based on remote sensing and field surveys, research during the past three years has revealed that the Darb el-Tawil is a complex network rather than a single road, including major branch routes and a multitude of shorter capillary paths connecting the various centres of the oasis. This network developed through history as a result of settlement changes in the oasis, but may also represent changes in modes of transport, such as the replacement of the donkey as pack animal by the camel, or variable resources along the routes.Pottery is abundant along these routes, either deposited at staging posts or lost by an accident. A first comprehensive chronology has been developed on the basis of this rich corpus of pottery evidencing, among others, that the Darb el-Tawil was established during the Old Kingdom, however, partly built over drove roads of the local pastoral nomads. The corpus of pottery covers a time range of some 4500 years up to modernity. Interviews with old caravan headmen in the oasis revealed that caravan business continued up to the early 1980s. Some periods are not represented in the corpus of the pottery. This might reflect geo-political changes in the Nile Valley; however, this view needs further elaboration on a broader basis of pottery. Most of the pottery jars represent functional classes characteristic in caravan transport: mainly storage jars used for water depots, or for transport of valued commodities, such as wine and oil. But there is also indication of pottery to be used by the caravan people along the way which has yet only marginally been studied: cooking pots or cups for the meal when camped, and the luxury of water bottles for the long marching hours. Finally, there are fine wares that may have been shipped as commodities. The caravan routes are systematically marked by cairns put up in regular intervals along the road. The detailed study of this system will offer insights into the modes of navigation in desert landscapes. Yet, the current project is also researching how landscape has been categorised and navigated by means of landmarks, and how landscape knowledge is learned and communicated.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Olaf Bubenzer