Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (4.1992(1993))

As was the practice in previous seasons, the recording of
sites consisted of their detailed description on catalogue sheets and
a general photographic record of the site/hill. Groupings and
individual petroglyphs were also described in detail on catalogue
sheets, traced on transparent film and aluminium foil, and
photographed if the need arose (most of the petroglyphs in the
square we were working in had been photographed already in the
first season in 1987).
Almost all the recorded petroglyphs could be ascribed, in
terms of style, to the "Earliest Hunters" and "Early Oasis
Dwellers" stylistic units defined for the rock art of the Oasis
already fifty years ago7 Some of these petroglyphs are distin-
guished by their high artistic quality. (Fig. 1) The relative
chronology of the Dakhleh rock art and the archaeological
evidence yielded by habitation sites excavated by another unit of
the Dakhleh Oasis Project's expedition close to our square seem
to point to the Middle (5-4 millennia B.C.) and perhaps also to
the Early Holocene (10-6 millennia B.C.) as the most probable
period for the execution of these petroglyphs.
As a result of this season's fieldwork all the petroglyphs
in the square were recorded, making the square a sample of
evidence and a data-base for research on different aspects of the
rock art in the Oasis, including typology, chronology and cultural
interpretation.

^ H. A. Winkler, Epper Egypt, vol. II, London
1939, Egypt Exploration Society, pojyi/n.

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