Prof. Ludwig Morenz from Uni Bonn deciphers 5,000-year-old inscription displaying early Egyptian dominance in Sinai

The find is spectacular: an unusually old inscription dating back around 5,000 years in the southwest of the Sinai Peninsula shows in a terrifying manner how the Egyptians colonized the Sinai and subjugated the inhabitants. The scene prominently depicted on a clearly visible rock shows the Egyptians’ dominance in the form of a large man with his arms raised and a Sinaite with an arrow in his chest kneeling in front of him. Mustafa Nour El-Din from the Aswan Inspectorate at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities discovered the unusual inscription in Wadi Khamila. Egyptologist Prof. Dr. Ludwig Morenz from the University of Bonn interpreted the scene: It announces the Egyptians’ colonial claim 5,000 years ago.

“The southwest of the Sinai is the region in which we can find economically motivated colonization using images and inscriptions, some of which are over 5,000 years old,” says Egyptologist Prof. Dr. Ludwig Morenz from the University of Bonn. “The motif that has now been discovered is one of the oldest known scenes of killing with an accompanying inscription.” The fear-inducing Egyptian standing in a victor’s pose in front of a kneeling, injured Sinaite depicts the subjugation of the local population.

The inhabitants of the Sinai Peninsula at that time had no writing, no government organization, and were inferior to the Egyptians in socio-cultural terms. The Egyptians advanced into the region in search of natural resources – such as sought-after copper and the gemstone turquoise – and colonized it. “Until now, Wadi Khamila has only been mentioned in research in connection with Nabataean inscriptions that are around 3,000 years younger,” says Morenz. “5,000-year-old evidence of the Egyptians was previously unknown there.”

Difficult dating

The dating of the rock inscriptions is a challenge for science. “Iconography, style, and epigraphy provide a good basis here,” says the Egyptologist. It is a matter, then, of how the inscriptions are actually composed. “There is also the cultural context: We know that ‘the Egyptians’ embarked on economic expeditions in the southwest Sinai in the late 4th century.”

The Egyptians also left graphic depictions of colonial dominance in other dry valleys of the Sinai known as ‘Wadi’ – Wadi Ameyra and Wadi Maghara. “Together with the rock carving that has now been found in Wadi Khamila, this suggests that the Egyptians had a kind of colonial network,” says Morenz. The prominent location in the landscape, the good visibility of the rock, its smooth surface, and its connection to traditional resting places apparently invited people to inscribe it. “Historically, it is often the case that in places with clearly visible rock inscriptions, they are rewritten or even overwritten,” reports Morenz. The Egyptologist also identified multiple overwritings on this rock inscription, including Arabic graffiti from recent years and decades.

Religious justification of colonization

In the two inscriptions from Wadi Khamila and Wadi Ameyra, direct reference is made to the god Min. “This god was the religious authority of the Egyptian expeditions in the 4th and early 3rd century,” says Morenz. “The images and inscriptions are usually very short, but the religious justification of colonization played an important role.” According to the findings of the Egyptologist from the University of Bonn, the inscription is likely to announce Egyptian dominance under the patronage of Min. It thus formulates a colonial claim by the Egyptians 5,000 years ago. According to the researcher, the reference specifically to the god Min characterized the early phase of Egyptian paleocolonialism in the Sinai. Other gods such as Sopdu then took the place of this god later on.

In comparison to the Aswan region, for example, inscriptions and rock carvings in Wadi Khamila are by no means common according to current knowledge. Morenz, who is also part of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Bonn Center for Dependency & Slavery Studies’ at the University of Bonn, is thrilled that Mustafa Nour El-Din from the Aswan Inspectorate at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities discovered the unusual inscription in Wadi Khamila on his exploratory trips. For Morenz, the discovery is a new starting point. He is planning to further explore the area and search for additional graffiti from this period. “However, we are first planning to hold discussions with the Egyptian Antiquities Authority to classify the new findings,” says Morenz.

Publikation: Wadi Khamila, the god Min and the Beginning of „Pharaonic“ Dominance in Sinai 5000 years ago, in: Blätter Abrahams 25, 2025, 75-95, https://www.freunde-abrahams.de/media/blaetter-abrahams/heft-25-2025/07.BAb.Nour-El-Din_Morenz.pdf