Abu Ballas (the pottery hill) is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

in the

Libyan Desert The Libyan Desert (not to be confused with the Libyan Sahara) is a geographical region filling the north-eastern Sahara Desert, from eastern Libya to the Western Desert of Egypt and far northwestern Sudan. On medieval maps, its use predates t ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. It lies about south-west of the Dakhla Oases and consists of two isolated sandstone cones in the otherwise flat desert. Both hills are covered with Egyptian pottery. These vessels were at the beginning of the 20th century often well preserved, but are today - due to modern tourism - very much destroyed. The site was discovered in 1918 and 1923. More recent research was undertaken in the last years. The area is name giver for the geological Abu Ballas formation.

Neolithic Occupation

Scholars suggest, that the Abu Ballas area has been occupied from about 8700 BP to about 5700 BP. They blame environmental conditions for a sudden cessation of human occupation there.

The Abu Ballas Trail

The nature of this site remained for a long time mysteries. More recent research has shown that the site was a station on an ancient desert road, called ''Abu Ballas Trail'', that connected the Dakla Oasis with the

Gilf Kebir Gilf Kebir () (var. Gilf al-Kebir, Jilf al Kabir, Gilf Kebir Plateau) is a plateau in the New Valley Governorate of the remote southwest corner of Egypt, and southeast Libya. Its name translates as "the Great Barrier". This sandstone plateau, ro ...

and the

Jebel Ouenat Mount Uwaynat or Gabal El Uweinat ( ar, جبل العوينات ', Arabic for 'Mountain of the springs') is a mountain range in the area of the Egyptian-Libyan-Sudanese tripoint. Because of thousands of prehistoric rock art sites, it is consider ...

. Some researchers maintain that Abu Ballas was a milestone of an ancient Egyptian trade route into central Africa or for prospecting minerals The place was installed in the late

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...

or early

First Intermediate Period The First Intermediate Period, described as a 'dark period' in ancient Egyptian history, spanned approximately 125 years, c. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom. It comprises the Seventh (although this is mostly considered spurious ...

, when some authorities decided to arrange supply depots on a track in the desert. Abu Ballas was one of the largest. Besides the pottery there were discovered some rock carvings, stone tools and even a

senet Senet or senat ( egy, znt, translation=passing; cf. Coptic language, Coptic ⲥⲓⲛⲉ /sinə/ "passing, afternoon") is a board game from ancient Egypt. The earliest representation of senet is dated to E from the Mastaba of Hesy-Re, while sim ...

game board engraved on a stone. There are no water sources nearby, evidently all water and food was brought here from the Dakhla Oases with donkeys. Most likely people lived here only for short periods of time. The desert road was mainly in use at the end of the Old Kingdom and to a lesser extent in the

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 by ...

and in the

New Kingdom New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. Rudolf Kuper, The Abu Ballas Trail: Pharaonic Advances into the Libyan Desert, in: Z.Hawass and L.Pinch Brock (ed.), Egypt and the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century. Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, Cairo 2000, vol.2, Cairo 2003, pp.272-276. File:AbuBallasJars.jpg, Pottery at Abu Ballas File:AbuBallasBowman.jpg, Engraving of bowman File:AbuBallasCow.jpg, Engraving of a cow suckling its calf

References

{{Saharan rock art Populated places established in the 9th millennium BC Populated places disestablished in the 6th millennium BC 1918 archaeological discoveries Saharan rock art New Valley Governorate Caves of Egypt Archaeological sites in Egypt Neolithic sites