Abstract
Bir Showish belongs to the largest settlements in the area (el-Hayz/Bahariya Oasis, Western desert, Egypt). It started already in the second half of the 1st century, the existence of the settlement and cemetery is proven in the 2nd century and the peak came in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.
Compared to other inhabited areas in the territory, this settlement had survived through the 5th to the beginning of the 6th century. The presence of many production facilities/devices, detected by the archeological survey, features residential facilities and agricultural activities, but it also represents the center of the local pottery production, and perhaps also the production of construction calcite or glass.
The surface survey focus on the manawar/qanat system as the key technical device, which couldn't exist without a functioning government organization. Other attractive issues involve agriculture (fields and their surroundings, technology of pumping water out of pits using pumping machinery, distribution of water for irrigation etc.) or the composition of the planted crop.
Southeast from House 1 in Bir Showish, quite a large field area, dated to the Roman period, was documented. The manawars/qanats finished close to the fields.