crack. Click to enlarge . Figure 8. Three incised stylised human figures with pronounced buttocks (superimposed by the belly-line of a large bovid) at Qurta II (QII.3.1). Click to enlarge . Figure 10. Incised hippopotamus at Qurta II (QII.3.1). Note the scratches over the head and neck. Click to enlarge . Age of the Qurta rock art The Qurta rock art is quite unlike any rock art known elsewhere in Egypt. It is substantially different from the ubiquitous ?classical? Predynastic rock art of the fourth millennium BC, known from hundreds of sites throughout the Nile Valley and the adjacent Eastern and Western deserts. The only true parallel thus far known is the rock art previously discovered (in 2004) at Abu Tanqura Bahari (ATB11) at el-Hosh, about 10km more to the north and on the opposite bank of the river. In 1962-1963, the above-mentioned Canadian Prehistoric Expedition working in the area (the purpose of which was to salvage as much as possible of the prehistoric archaeological remains in the areas around Kom Ombo which were being prepared at that time for cultivation for the Nubians displaced as a result of the construction of the High Dam at Aswan) discovered and excavated several Late Palaeolithic settlements in the vicinity of the rock art sites. The most important of these is GS-III, situated at a distance of only 150 to 200m from the Qurta I rock art site. At this Palaeolithic site fragments of sandstone were found on which linear grooves had been