This volume collates and analyses petroglyphs from the eastern desert of Egypt. Images of wild animals, domestic animals, anthropoids and boats, together with geometric patterns, are classified and assessed by statistical means to reach conclusions about the preferences of the artists in terms of subject matter, style, context and geographical distribution. The dataset is compared with petroglyphs from the Nile Valley and further afield to establish possible connections, contacts and influences. Issues of dating and meaning are also addressed.

One of the biggest concentrations of Egypt's Prehistoric rock art is found to the east of the Nile, in the wadis (dry valleys) that dissect the hills and plains between the Wadi Hammamat to the north and the Wadi Barramiya to the south. In the space of just five months, between October 2000 and February 2001, three teams of dedicated volunteers carried out a systematic survey of this remarkable region. They succeeded in locating and recording over 100 new sites of rock art, previously unknown to archaeology. The results, comprising many thousands of individual scenes, are presented here for the first time. They open up a fascinating and largely unexpected window on Egypts past, and on the beginnings of civilisation in north-eastern Africa.