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WADI HAMAMMAT
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The Wadi Hamammat, like the Wadi Barramiya, has a well-used modern road. In ancient times the route was nearer to the rocks. Bir Laqeita and Bir Umm Fawakhir provided water, and at Laqeita soon after the war, Debono found Badarian, Naqada 1 and Naqada II remains. Naqada was the city of gold and in the period of state formation access to this and other mineral sources would have been a prize worth winning. Today, this area too is vulnerable to quarrying and re-opening of the gold mines.
Beyond the rock arts sites, which lie on both sides of the road, are the schist quarries.The pharaonic inscriptions are fine works of art and also have marks left by the work gangs who quarried stone here. In pharaonic times a sarcophegus made from Hamammat stone was known as a "Lord of Life", the stone passessing restorative power. This was the route to the quarries, to the gold mindes, and to all the mineral resources of the Eastern Desert, including jasper, beryl and Red Sea shells.
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Winkler's Site 5 being recorded by Peter Dixon
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This site contains a boat with the only arms raised figure in this wadi. It has a total of 15 boats. But one has a lighter patination, the same as the surrounding symbols (wusum?) and therefore is not predynastic.
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Left: from Winler's Site 4, the only painted petroglyph in the Eastern Desert. The pigment was clearly obtained from the rock strata immediately below. The boat looks like one from Tomb 100, usually dated to Naqada II c/d. Right: sailboat which escaped quarrying.
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THE QUARRIES
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In the quarries there is a wealth of inscriptions, the geanealogy of the royal architect, Khenibre, a number of portrayals of Min,and some dynastic boats.
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PREDYNASTIC ROCK ART IN THE QUARRIES
There is some rock art that can be dated to predynastic times. One large panel contains animals and two arms raised figures. But are there also any boats? Clearly, there are dynastic era ones, but I put forward these two examples as possibly pre-dynastic.
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In both cases here, the earlier figures are overcarved by later pharaonic ones, when other smooth rock faces were available.
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