Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

SHEMKHIYA

SUDAN

PRELIMINARY DATA
ON PETROGLYPHS FROM GEBEL GURGURIB
NEAR SHEMKHIYA
IN THE FOURTH CATARACT REGION

Karol Piasecki*

While with the PCMA expedition to the
Fourth Cataract, directed by Bogdan Zu-
rawski, between 10 February and 5 March
2006, the present author carried out a pro-


Fig. 1. Schematic localization of sites in-
ventoried during the prospect ion in the
spring of 2006 (flag marks the
location of the expedition base)

spection of the Gebel Gurgurib area near
Shemkhiya. Altogether 64 rock-art sites
were identified and documented provisio-
nally (the coding of the sites — KP with
number — is only for the purposes of the
present report and will be adapted to the
general survey recording system upon
completion of the work);1 some of the single
petroglyphs may have been recorded during
earlier prospection in the area. Moreover,
following further studies, certain sites may
have to be treated jointly for technical and
formal reasons.
All the inventoried sites are located
from one to five kilometers east and north
of the center of the village of Shemkhiya
where the expedition's base was located
[Fig. 1}. The glyphs were made on hard
crystalline rocks covered to a varying
extent with waste and desert patina. The
selection of surfaces for making drawings
depended on exposure with regard to com-
munication trails. It is only exceptionally
that the glyphs appear on the horizontal
surfaces of rock bars or on small boulders
lying in the wadi bottom. An absolute
majority is accessible from ground level or

* University of Szczecin, Chair of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology
1 Partly in association with other PCMA expedition staff, students of archaeology from the Adam Mickiewicz University
in Poznan, Krzysztof Gawronski, Eukasz Moczulski and Marcin Swoboda. For more on the rock art in this region, see
below, contribution by E. Kuciewicz in this volume.

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