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Czech excavations in the Egyptian Western desert

15.11.2005 Miroslav Bárta

Between the years 2003 – 2005, this project has been financed from the means granted by the UNIS company.

Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Charles University has joined the exploration of the western desert in the year 2003. The activities of its multidisciplinary team, financed hitherto exclusively from private means of the UNIS company, have already brought to light important evidence about the forms of cultural adaptation and development of ancient economies in the context of worsening living conditions in antiquity. Thus Czech research have contributed to the fact that such research has become one of the fastest developing fields of archaeology, which is carefully monitored and supported abroad. Of special importance is also the newly acquired knowledge about the strategies employed for treating scarce water resources in antiquity, which may be significant even in modern times. It must be emphasized that through the acquisition of the concession in the el-Hayez oasis and the present results of their research, the Czech team has managed to join the international cooperation in the exploration of eastern Sahara and follow up a new, dynamically developing trend of Egyptian and world archaeology. In the course of these explorations, the newest technology is being used, beginning with very precise GPS measuring deep in the desert to the satellite imaging of the areas of our research. We have hitherto discovered, mapped and in part also explored over ten settlements and cemeteries, including the Roman villa preserved to the height of three meters under the sand drifts.

The reports about our exploration activities can be found here:

1. Season: 28th February – 25th March 2003 (Czech, English) links to pdf files
2. Season: 6th March – 31st March 2004 (Czech,English) links to pdf files

Satellite image of part of the area of the el-Hayez oasis where we excavate

The last season (year 2004) was conducted in cooperation with the National Geographic Czech Republic, which published daily online reports (in Czech) from the excavations.