Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

the Dakhla area . . . bears implications for the question of early Egyptian relations with Sudanese Nubia. It suggests
a line or a network of communication across the Eastern Sahara as late as the early third millennium BC. . . . The
new evidence supports the scenario that even after 3000 BC the Libyan Desert was not completely void of human
activity. In its southern part, cattle keepers could survive as late as the second millennium BC. . . . Apparently, the
Egyptian Nile Valley and the oases were connected with these regions and farther African destinations beyond by a
network of donkey caravan routes crossing southern Egypt. 32
What Kuper seems to be saying is that prehistoric Black people living in the Egyptian Sahara not only were able to
communicate with others as far south as Dongola in Sudan but also were probably still around when the pharaohs of the
early dynasties (ca. 2500–2100 BCE) sent their emissaries, such as Harkhuf, into the Sahara. In 1990, German
archaeologist G. Burkhard found a small rock mound 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) south of Dakhla that had on it
prehistoric petroglyphs of wild animals and also an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription—“Regnal year 23, the
steward Meri he goes up to meet the Oasis Dwellers” 33 —tentatively dated to the sixth dynasty (and thus contemporary
with Harkhuf). This discovery prompted Rudolph Kuper to consider the possibility that the ancient Egyptians might have
reached the extreme southwest region of the Egyptian Sahara, perhaps as far as Gilf Kebir. 34 The reason for Kuper’s
uncanny prediction was his awareness of the existence of a hill some 200 kilometers (about 124 miles) southwest of
Dakhla known as Abu Ballas Hill (Father of Pots Hill, or Pottery Hill), which had been discovered in 1918 by the British
explorer John Ball. Strewn all along its base were hundreds of large clay pots dated to the Old Kingdom (ca. 2500–2100
BCE) as determined by the hieroglyphic engravings found on the hill. What was the purpose of this place? Why did it
have all those large clay pots? Count Almasy had visited Abu Ballas Hill in the 1930s, and he had suggested that it was a
very ancient water station or supply outpost, a sort of donkey filling station, along a long-forgotten route that may have
linked the oasis of Dakhla to Gilf Kebir and perhaps beyond. 35 As it turned out both Almasy and Kuper would be proved
correct by none other than the indefatigable Carlo Bergmann.
THE ABU BALLAS TRAIL
The mystery of Abu Ballas Hill was finally solved in 1999 by Carlo Bergmann. In the course of a whole year, from
March 1999 to March 2000, Bergmann explored on foot the region southwest of Dakhla oasis and discovered some
thirty other water stations with similar large, clay pots set almost equidistant to one another, like a hop-skip-and-jump
trail or, more poetically, a string of pearls along a 350-kilometer (217 mile) stretch of desert. The midpoint of this trail
was Abu Ballas Hill, and the whole created an almost straight highway from Dakhla to Gilf Kebir. The conclusion was
inevitable: this was the long-forgotten ancient caravan trail predicted by Almasy. 36 This discovery amounted to an
intellectual explosion for the academics, for here was hard, irrefutable evidence that the pharaohs did after all travel into
the deep desert and probably even made contact with the descendants of the prehistoric people who lived there. Further,
all this was happening forty-five hundred years before Prince Kemal el Din discovered Gilf Kebir. Here is how the
pharaohs did it.
In ancient times the essential commodities for such a trip were, of course, water and food, as well as water and
fodder for the beasts of burden. It is well known that the camel was not introduced into Egypt before 500 BCE, so that
the only other means of desert transport in the Old Kingdom was the donkey (Equus asinus). Harkhuf claimed to have
taken three hundred donkeys for his journey to Yam, and donkey caravans are also attested on temple and tomb reliefs as
early as the first dynasties. Also, on one of the large clay pots at Abu Ballas there is a drawing of a donkey confirming
that this animal had carried the pots and presumably other goods to this location in the desert. The donkey is an excellent
desert traveler and can easily carry loads of sixty kilograms (about a hundred thirty pounds) and walk 15 kilometers
(about 9 miles) per day and can go three days without water. A fully grown and healthy donkey will need about 2 to 3
liters of water and about 3 kilograms of fodder each day, which together will add 5 to 6 kilograms (about 13 pounds) per
day to the load he must carry. A one-way trip from Dakhla to the edge of Gilf Kebir will take a minimum of twenty days
and thus will require a total load of 120 kilograms (about 265 pounds) for each donkey, to which we must add another
30 kilograms (about 60 pounds) for the containers that carry the water and food as well as basic traveling equipment plus
the food and water for the person leading the donkey (estimated at 50 kilograms—about 110 pounds—per load).
Conservatively, then, each donkey must be able to carry at the start of the journey at least 200 kilograms (440 pounds).
This, of course, is impossible. A donkey walking at normal pace in such grueling conditions can carry only 60 to 80
kilograms without buckling under the load.