Perceiving Context, Understanding Rock Art: The Case of the First Cataract Region of the Nile

Since 2005, the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project (AKAP) has conducted a systematic study of several rock art sites in the region of the First Nile Cataract, which for the first time included comprehensive documentation of the surrounding landscape and its anthropogenic signatures. The approach has shown that a clear understanding of the topographic and human-related context in which rock art is situated can substantially enhance the interpretation of this archaeological dataset, revealing an otherwise unrecognised variability in agency, function, and perception. This paper briefly discusses AKAP's workflow and the results of introducing the context variable into rock art studies.