Jeskyně plavců a šelem

The Cave of swimmers and beasts by Miroslav Bárta.

This study is dedicated to the principal results of the First Czech scientific expedition to Gilf Kebir that took part in 2008. During the survey of distant parts of the Egyptian Western Desert, primary attention was paid to the Cave of the Swimmers and the Cave of the Beasts. Both caves comprise beautifully painted decoration dated to the period of last humid phase in Sahara, 7000–5300 B.C.E. Principal scientific discovery of the mission is that some motifs from the Cave of the Beasts can be linked with essential concepts known from Egyptian mythology some 2000 years later. Among them are Nut and Geb as principal celestial and earthly deities, prototypic form of an Egyptian ruler or mystical headless beasts. The conclusion is that at least some substantial parts of ancient Egyptian intelectual background was brought into the Nile valley be the mind from the dessicating Western desert following 5300 B.C.E.