UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 10
November 7, 1996
Research in Egypt shows ancient trade customs
Elephants, gold, singing boys and a host of other
commodities moved through the Ptolemaic-Roman port of Berenike,
at the edge of Egypt's mountainous Eastern Desert, from at least
the third century B.C. until the late fifth or sixth centuries
A.D.-much longer than previously assumed, two archaeologists say.
The ancient port continued to thrive long after its heyday
in the first century A.D., largely because of favorable
prevailing wind patterns, but also because entrepreneurs "kept
their overhead costs low to maximize profits," according to
Steven E. Sidebotham, history. "The port buildings were made of
the cheapest possible building materials, such as fossilized
coral and gypsum blocks. They had built elaborate structures in
town, yet their warehouses and other utilitarian buildings were
low-budget, low-maintenance affairs. So, their profit margins
were enormous."
Likewise, traders sailing into Berenike (pronounced BEAR-uh-
NEEK-ay) often grabbed "the equivalent of millions of dollars for
a single shipment," ancient cargo records reveal, but reaching
the Red Sea port was a risky business, Sidebotham says.
Just as modern global corporations must weather hostile
takeovers and downsizing, ancient traders braved dangerous coral
reefs, powerful monsoon winds, pirates and a 25 to 50 percent tax
on all goods shipped into Berenike, according to Sidebotham and
his research partner, Willemina Z. Wendrich, an archaeologist at
Leiden University, The Netherlands.
The diverse population of Berenike, founded around 275 B.C.
by Ptolemy II, who named the port after his mother, also mirrors
today's global marketplace.
"Merchants, both men and women from various ethnic
backgrounds, had the same objective: to accrue fabulous wealth
which this East-West trade potentially offered," Sidebotham and
Wendrich report in a recent issue of Egyptian Archaeology: The
Bulletin of the Egypt Exploration Society.
Their findings also are described in a paper now in press
for the German archaeology journal, Antike Welt, and in Berenike
1995, a new book about their excavation and survey of the site,
published in 1996 by the School of Asian, African and Amerindian
Studies at Leiden University.
Though many archaeologists believe that trade through
Berenike emphasized nonessential or luxury goods, Sidebotham and
Wendrich disagree.
Ptolemaic officials imported elephants and gold to support
their diplomatic and military goals in the Mediterranean, he
says. African elephants served as "tanks" for the Ptolemaic
(Egyptian) army, and for other contemporary armies in the Near
East. Gold helped the Ptolemaic government achieve its military
and political objectives in key regions.
Two other imported items, frankincense and myrhh, were
widely used in religious ceremonies, and Indian pepper was a key
component of many ancient pharmaceuticals, Sidebotham says.
Because these and other imported goods were essential in
ancient Mediterranean society, he explains, traders continued to
visit Berenike throughout the fifth century A.D., and possibly
during part of the following century. In support of this
conclusion, Sidebotham and Wendrich point to 1,156 black
peppercorns, imported textiles and botanical remains unearthed
from the Berenike excavation site, suggesting ongoing trade with
India, Arabia, coastal sub-Saharan Africa and other regions.
"Pepper was only grown in South Asia at that time, and we
found many of these peppercorns in first through fourth and fifth
century A.D. contexts while excavating the site," Sidebotham
says. "If they were dropping or discarding that much pepper on
the ground, imagine how much passed through or was consumed at
the port."
According to the two researchers, ancient Mediterranean
peoples exported red coral, singing boys and maidens for Indian
harems, as well as pearls, glass, textiles, grain, wine and gold
and silver bullion. Sidebotham and Wendrich's site survey was
based in part on satellite data from a hand-held Global
Positioning System, plus excavations and historical documents by
ancient authors such as Pliny the Elder.
Food remnants, pottery, ancient documents and religious
artifacts helped the two archaeologists describe the diverse
community of Berenike. For example, bicolored pottery, goat bones
and camel by-products from the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. may
have been dropped in the center of the city by desert-dwelling
nomads known as the Blemmyes. But a nearby public building
probably housed a different ethnic group partial to fish,
Sidebotham says.
A newly uncovered "warehouse of pagan idols" also suggests
the coexistence of many different cultures, he adds.
A nearly life-sized bronze statue, for instance, may depict
the popular Ptolemaic-Roman goddess Isis holding a cornucopia, or
it may represent the Greco-Roman goddess, Hygieia, clutching a
snake, Sidebotham explains.
A stone lion could be associated with any one of several
pagan cults, including the Great Mother goddess, Cybele. Since
ancient documents record widespread suppression of pagan idols in
the fourth and fifth century A.D., Sidebotham says, Egyptians may
have placed these objects in a warehouse for safekeeping.
"We don't know yet why Berenike declined and fell apart,"
Sidebotham says. "But, certainly, it had increasing competition
over the years from many other ports, especially in the southern
parts of the Red Sea. If we hope to learn from the ancients, we
have to preserve and explore important archaeological sites like
Berenike."
Research by Sidebotham and Wendrich is supported by the
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Foundation for
History, Archaeology and Ancient History; the National Geographic
Society; the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; the American
Philosophical Society; the University of Delaware; Ilford; Leids
Universiteits Fonds; Gratama Stichting; Queens University
Belfast; the Egypt Exploration Society; the Stichting Berenike
Foundation and private donors.
-Ginger Pinholster