Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice RouteThe legendary overland silk road was not the only way to reach Asia for ancient travelers from the Mediterranean. During the Roman Empire’s heyday, equally important maritime routes reached from the Egyptian Red Sea across the Indian Ocean. The ancient city of Berenike, located approximately 500 miles south of today’s Suez Canal, was a significant port among these conduits. In this book, Steven E. Sidebotham, the archaeologist who excavated Berenike, uncovers the role the city played in the regional, local, and "global" economies during the eight centuries of its existence. Sidebotham analyzes many of the artifacts, botanical and faunal remains, and hundreds of the texts he and his team found in excavations, providing a profoundly intimate glimpse of the people who lived, worked, and died in this emporium between the classical Mediterranean world and Asia. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 7 | |
Chapter 3 PreRoman Infrastructure in the Eastern Desert | 21 |
Chapter 4 Ptolemaic DiplomaticMilitaryCommercial Activities | 32 |
Chapter 5 Ptolemaic and Early Roman Berenike and Environs | 55 |
Chapter 6 Inhabitants of Berenike in Roman Times | 68 |
Chapter 7 Water in the Desert and the Ports | 87 |
Chapter 8 NileRed Sea Roads | 125 |
Chapter 10 Merchant Ships | 195 |
Chapter 11 Commercial Networks and Trade Costs | 206 |
Chapter 12 Trade in Roman Berenike | 221 |
Chapter 13 Late Roman Berenike and Its Demise | 259 |
Notes | 283 |
| 355 | |
| 425 | |
Chapter 9 Other Emporia | 175 |
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Common terms and phrases
Africa amphoras ancient animals Apollonopolis Magna archaeological areas Axumite Bagnall Berenike Berenike’s Bernand Bülow-Jacobsen camel Cappers Casson chapter cisterns Claudius Ptolemy coins commercial Cuvigny Diodorus Siculus documented earlier early Roman period east Eastern Desert Egypt Egyptian elephants evidence excavations at Berenike fifth century graffiti harbor Harrell Hydreuma important India Indian Ocean indicate inscription Klemm Koptos late Roman Marsa Nakari Maxfield Mediterranean military Mons Claudianus Mons Porphyrites Muziris Myos Hormos Nabataean Nile valley ostraka ostrakon Palmyrenes Peacock perhaps Periplus Pliny the Elder Porphyrites pottery praesidia praesidium probably Ptolemaic quarries Quseir recorded Red Sea coast Red Sea ports Reddé region reign road Roman-era routes sailing second century c.e. Serapis Serapis temple settlement ships Sidebotham 1986 Sidebotham 2000b Sidebotham and Wendrich Sidebotham and Zitterkopf sources stations stone Strabo suggests third century tion Tomber trade transport trash dump travelers Wadi Hammamat