The Wadi Shatt el-Rigal

This volume, part of the wider EES publications on the site of Gebel el-Silsila, covers the results of the 1983 season at nearby Wadi Shatt el-Rigal, famous for its abundance of epigraphic records from the late Eleventh Dynasty. The reason for their presence in this remote site has remained an intriguing problem that has been much debated. Besides the three well-known royal reliefs of Mentuhotep II and Mentuhotep III, the mission under Ricardo Caminos and assisted by J|rgen Osing documented more than 800 inscriptions and rock-drawings, which until now have remained only partially published. Follow-up work in 2004 has allowed for checks on the previous work, which can now be made fully accessible.

Ricardo A. Caminos was born in Buenos Aires in 1915, where he spent his early years. He moved to Chicago with the support of a scholarship from the Institute of International Education and dedicated himself to his graduate studies at the Oriental Institute. A stint at the University of Oxford became a decisive experience in his development as an Egyptologist, specialising in hieratic palaeography and epigraphy. In 1955, together with T. G. H. James, he began work at Gebel es-Silsila and the nearby Shatt el-Rigal for the Egypt Exploration Society, returning there several times during the 1970s and 1980s. In between, he participated in important missions at Qasr Ibrim, Buhen, Semna and Kumma. Ricardo Caminos died in 1992. Jurgen Osing has been engaged in epigraphic work at various Egyptian sites: the temple of Seti I in Western Thebes, the Oasis of Dakhla, and the tomb of Nefersekheru at Zawyet Sultan near Minya. In the seasons of 1978-1980 and 1983 he assisted Prof. Caminos as an epigraphist at Gebel el-Silsila and the Wadi Shatt el-Rigal.