The oases of Kharga and Dakhla have been linked administratively from ancient times into the present. This chapter presents a study of the two main physical routes that connected the two oases: the Darb al-Ghubari and the Darb Ain Amur. Cairns, tracks, rock art, inscriptions, ceramics, and other small finds serve to identify the tracks and stopping points along the way. These paths, particularly the Darb Ain Amur, evolved over time, reflecting the changing environment and modes of transport that were used to make the journey from pharaonic to Roman times.

This chapter concerns the different approaches (statistic, spatial analysis) using ceramic and amphoras as markers of the “culture materielle” in the Great Oasis. Starting from the Duch (ancient Kysis) material, the studies, in collaboration with geomorphologists and young scholars involved in the Project Partner University Fund, have focused on El-Deir in Kharga and Amheida (ancient Trimithis) in Dakhla. The first results are revealing some aspects, specially for the Roman and Byzantine periods, of the economic (production, trade), social, and cultural environment of the Great Oasis and the connectivity of the oasian populations.

This chapter aims to contribute to the study of the network of commerce between the Great Oasis,the Nile Valley, and the Mediterranean basin during the Roman and Late Roman periods. In particular, it describes the fragments of Egyptian and imported amphoras that have been identified during the course of the analysis of the ceramics from the survey (2012 and 2013) and excavations (2004-13) conducted at Trimithis/Amheida (Dakhla Oasis) by the team sponsored first by Columbia University and then by New York University. The study of these transport containers, which are quite rare in the oases, sheds new light on possible patterns of use and consumption in the different areas of Trimithis, as well as how the polis fits into this range of contacts which interested the oasis during the first to fourth century AD.