…“invisible nomads”…the idea that human beings on the run would leave nothing behind in their path, or that what remained of their journeys would be too flimsy and short-lived to be recognized by an archaeologist…the view of a journey as a means to an end- “the primacy of destination”- rather than simplying “being on the move”.
-Chapter 1, Desert Road Archaeology in Ancient Egypt and Beyond, Förster and Riemer, 2013
Yesterday’s asīda tossed aside by Adam Hamid after breakfast, a camel hobble left in haste by Mas’ud Abu Dūd, KhairAllah’s broken tea glass, a couple of dead batteries from the Khawaja’s tape recorder…just a few of the artifacts that an archaeologist studying desert roads might recognize somewhere between the Ma’toul and ‘Idd Ahmad wells.