The Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP), ongoing since 1978, is a study of the environmental and cultural evolution of an isolated Egyptian oasis, not too far from the river Nile. Its unique location and climate has led to a treasure trove of discoveries that span from the first arrival of humans 400,000 years ago to 21st century oasis farmers.
The study is not only archaeological and so the 100 or so people working on it include geologists, geomorphologists, botanists, zoologists, physicists, photographers, draughtsmen, conservators, surveyors, papyrologists, art historians, Egyptologists and epigraphers from Australia, Canada, the US, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and beyond. How else is it possible to record human existence?
When they first started with a walking survey of the landscape, the fragments they uncovered were from the Middle Pleistocene (400,000 years ago) all the way through to Roman and Ottoman times to today. Some of the discoveries include prehistoric rock art of giraffes, remains of stone-built temples including one dedicated to a previously unknown deity and some of the earliest codex books ever found.
To find out more about the Dakhleh Oasis Project, come along to our series of talks from the Egyptologists who work and live in the dry, arid landscape of the oasis and also work and live in the unique coastal landscape of Cornwall.
In our first talk, Tony Mills, director of the DOP from 1978-2005, will introduce the oasis, its unique location and timeline of events and even let us in on what the future looks like for the project.
In our second talk we will be learning all about the art from the oasis with Paweł Lech Polkowski, director of the DOP and its Petroglyph Unit, and artist John O’Carroll, an archaeological illustrator and recording artist for the DOP.
In the third and final talk, Tony Mills returns to tell us all about the complex logistics of running a dig and establishing a desert project. All will be revealed with personal stories and anecdotes.
For more info and to book a place, please visit: www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk/exhibition/events
