The archaeological studies of flint mining are a vast topic in prehistoric research worldwide. A variety of methods have been used. Many of them focus on the studies of the unique relief of terrain in areas where flint was extracted.

Egypt is ideally situated to examine both natural and human-made terrain changes in the landscape. It has extensive desert regions devoid of or merely sparsely vegetated, and many such areas are intact. Taking that, the search for flint extraction points can be particularly promising with a computational or remote sensing approach.

Flint raw material deposits were found in Egypt between Esna in the south and Cairo in the north, along the wadis near the Nile Valley. Archaeological investigations have been carried out at several flint mines in Egypt. Among the best known are Nazlet Khater, Nazlet Safaha, Wadi el-Sheikh or the Eastern Desert mines (Vermeersch 2002; Briois and Midant-Reynes 2014; Köhler, Hart, and Klauzner 2017). From the Palaeolithic through the New Kingdom, their use has been dated differently at each location. These archaeological sites come in great numbers, many of which have not yet been located. The studies conducted so far did not allow an understanding of the extent of the mining activities.

The paper will present the result of the application of remote sensing, Machine and Deep learning methods in the studies of flint mining in Egypt. Two test areas have been selected for the studies, representing the best-preserved mining landscape.

The data used in the project are high-resolution WorldView, Google Earth Pro, Sentinel 2 multispectral imagery and Copernicus Digital Elevation Model (DEM) (GLO-30), which were selected because they represent the best resolution among freely available data.

The paper will present the preliminary results of the project and discuss the potential and issues in the study of flint mining on the selected examples in Egypt. The plans for future projects will also be discussed.

Briois, François, and Béatrix Midant-Reynes. 2014. “Sur Les Traces de Georg August Schweinfurth: Les Sites d’exploitation Du Silex d’époque Pharaonique Dans Le Massif Du Galâlâ Nord (Désert Oriental).” Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale. PP -.

Köhler, E Christiana, Elizabeth Hart, and Michael Klauzner. 2017. “Wadi El-Sheikh: A New Archaeological Investigation of Ancient Egyptian Chert Mines.” PLoS One. PP -. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170840.

Parcak, Sarah, David Gathings, Chase Childs, Greg Mumford, and Eric Cline. 2016. “Satellite Evidence of Archaeological Site Looting in Egypt: 2002–2013.” Antiquity 90 (349): 188–205. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2016.1.

Vermeersch, Pierre M. 2002. “Palaeolithic Quarrying Sites in Upper and Middle Egypt.” Egyptian Prehistory Monographs. Leuven: Leuven University Press PP – Leuven.