Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
(b) A fragment of the Amenhotep III shabti from the Slovak National Museum
[poster]
“Lascaux along the Nile”: The Palaeolithic rock art of Qurta (Upper-Egypt)
Dirk Huyge
In February-March 2007, a Belgian archaeological expedition, financed by Yale
University, started a rock art research project at the Qurta sites, on the east bank of the
Nile, along the northern edge of the Kom Ombo Plain, about 40 km south of Edfu and
15 km north of Kom Ombo. The rock art sites at Qurta, which are essentially
characterized by naturalistically drawn animal figures (predominantly wild cattle or
aurochs), had been discovered in 1962-1963 by a Canadian archaeological mission,
but had never been properly been valued. They were relocated by the Belgian mission
in 2005. On the basis of a large number of arguments, relative to the rock art itself and
to its general geographical and archaeological context, it is beyond doubt that these
drawings are extremely ancient and can most probably be attributed to the Late
Palaeolithic Ballanan-Silsilian culture, dated to about 16,000 to 15,000 years ago
(BP). As such, Qurta constitutes the oldest graphic activity recorded in Egypt until
now. It moreover provides clear evidence that Africa in general and Egypt in
particular possesses prehistoric art that is both chronologically and aesthetically
closely comparable to the great Palaeolithic art traditions known for a long time from
the European continent.
Royal monuments of the third dynasty: a re-examination of the archaeological
documents
Ilaria Incordino
Summary of the Ph.D. research results on the royal funerary monuments of the Third
Dynasty, trying to recognize a possible chronological sequence of kings, in which I
suggest the chronological position of Sanakht at the beginning of the dynasty. My
work has been focused first on the study of 12 royal reliefs of the third dynasty that
could complete the work on the style and proportions in the reliefs of the Ancient
Kingdom begun by GAY ROBINS in the year 1994. This analysis has the aim to
identify the pharaonic canon of representation for this period, giving more evidence to
draw up the chronology. The second phase of my reseach is a more punctual
examination of the rich epigraphical documents referring to the administral officials
of the third dynasty, specially from the Bet Khallaf cemetery, that could clear the birth
of some title or mention of buildings and royal institutions helpful to identify the
burocratic development in the administration of the time. Finally my survey of the Bet
Khallaf site in 2007 has suggested me a new hypotesis for the biggest mastaba of the
cemetery (K1).
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