Berenice Troglodytica, also called Berenike (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: ) or Baranis, is an ancient seaport of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

on the western shore of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

. It is situated about 825 km south of

Suez Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...

, 260 km east of

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city ha ...

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

and 140 km south of

Marsa Alam Marsa Alam ( ' , Classical Arabic ) is a tourist List of cities and towns in Egypt, town in south-eastern Egypt, located on the western shore of the Red Sea. It is described as a "popular" tourist destination. Marsa Alam is a relatively recently ...

. It was founded in 275 BCE by

Ptolemy II Philadelphus Ptolemy II Philadelphus (, ''Ptolemaîos Philádelphos'', "Ptolemy, sibling-lover"; 309 – 28 January 246 BC) was the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 284 to 246 BC. He was the son of Ptolemy I, the Macedonian Greek general of Alexander the G ...

(285–246 BCE), who named it after his mother,

Berenice I of Egypt Berenice I (; c. 340 BC – between 279 and 268 BC) was Queen of Egypt by marriage to Ptolemy I Soter. She became the second queen, after Eurydice of Egypt, Eurydice, of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt, Egypt. Life Family Berenice was orig ...

. A high mountain range runs along the African coast and separates the

Nile Valley The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

from the

; Berenice was sited upon a narrow rim of shore between the mountains and the

, at the head of the ''Sinus Immundus'', a south-facing bay sheltered on the north by a high peninsula then called ''Lepte Extrema'', and to the south by a chain of small islands scattered across the mouth of the bay. One of them was called the Island of

Ophiodes ''Ophiodes'' is a genus of South American legless lizards in the family Diploglossidae. Species ''Ophiodes'' contains six species. *'' Ophiodes enso'' *'' Ophiodes fragilis'' – fragile worm lizard *''Ophiodes intermedius'' *'' Ophiodes luc ...

(

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

xvi. p. 770;) and was one of a few sources of

gemstone A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, semiprecious stone, or simply gem) is a piece of mineral crystal which, when cut or polished, is used to make jewellery, jewelry or other adornments. Certain Rock (geology), rocks (such ...

s local to Berenice. The harbour is marginal, but was improved by engineering.

Etymology

The name ''Troglodytica'' refers to the native people of the region, the " Troglodytai" or "cave dwellers". Although the name is attested by several ancient writers, the more ancient Ptolemaic inscriptions read ''Trogodytai'', which Huntingford (1980) speculated could be derived from the same root as

Tuareg The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym, depending on variety: ''Imuhaɣ'', ''Imušaɣ'', ''Imašeɣăn'' or ''Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group, traditionally nomadic pastoralists, who principally inhabit th ...

. It is possible that later copyists confused this name with the more common term ''Troglodytai''.

History

Ptolemaic era

Berenice was prosperous and quite famous in antiquity. The city is noted by most ancient geographers, including

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

, and

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...

. Its prosperity after the third century was mostly due to three reasons: #patronage by the

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty *Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining t ...

kings #safe anchorage #being at the eastern terminus of the main road from

. The other terminus of that road is

Coptos Qift ( ; ''Keft'' or ''Kebto''; Egyptian Gebtu; ''Coptos'' / ''Koptos''; Roman Justinianopolis) is a city in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about north of Luxor, situated a little south of latitude 26° north, on the east bank of the Nile. In a ...

(now

Qift Qift ( ; ''Keft'' or ''Kebto''; Egyptian Gebtu; ''Coptos'' / ''Koptos''; Roman Justinianopolis) is a city in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about north of Luxor, situated a little south of latitude 26° north, on the east bank of the Nile. In a ...

), an Egyptian city on the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

, which made Berenice and

Myos Hormos Myos Hormos () was a Red Sea port founded by the Ptolemy II Philadelphus upon a headland of similar name, around the 3rd century BC. Later, it was renamed to Aphrodites Hormos () but the elder appellation is more generally retained. Following ex ...

the two main shipping centers for trade between

Aethiopia Ancient Aethiopia, () first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the skin color of the inhabitants of the upper Nile in northern Sudan, of areas south of the Sahara, and of certain areas in Asia. Its earliest men ...

and Egypt on the one hand, and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Tamilakkam Tamilakam () also known as ancient Tamil country as was the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Laks ...

, and

Tamraparni Tamraparni (Sanskrit for "with copper leaves" or "red-leaved") is an older name for multiple distinct places, including Sri Lanka, Tirunelveli in India, and the Thamirabarani River that flows through Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. As a name for Sri ...

(ancient

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

) on the other. The road across the desert from Coptos was 258

Roman mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of length; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...

s long, or 11 days' journey. Watering stations (Greek ''hydreumata'', ''see''

Hadhramaut Hadhramaut ( ; ) is a geographic region in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula which includes the Yemeni governorates of Hadhramaut, Shabwah and Mahrah, Dhofar in southwestern Oman, and Sharurah in the Najran Province of Saudi A ...

) were built along the road; the wells and resting places for caravans are listed by Pliny, and in the ''Itineraries''. In the 19th century Belzoni found traces of several of the watering stations. Berenice was able to generate some commerce locally: The mines of Gebel Zabara and Wadi Sikait in the adjacent mountains, and the island of

(now

Zabargad Island Zabargad Island ( ', also known as St. John's Island in English) is the largest of a group of islands in Foul Bay, Egypt. It covers an area of . It is not a Quaternary volcanic island, but rather is believed to be an upthrust part of upper mantle ...

) in the mouth of Berenice's harbor, were rich sources of gemstones (

peridot Peridot ( ), sometimes called chrysolite, is a yellow-green transparent variety of olivine. Peridot is one of the few gemstones that occur in only one color. Peridot can be found in mafic and ultramafic rocks occurring in lava and peridotite ...

?) at that time called “topaz” and “emerald”.

Imperial Roman era

From the 1st century BCE until the 2nd century CE, Berenice was one of the critical way-stations for trade between the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

, and Upper Egypt. It was connected to

Antinoöpolis Antinoöpolis (also Antinoopolis, Antinoë, Antinopolis; ; ''Antinow''; , modern , modern ''Sheikh 'Ibada'' or ''Sheik Abāda'') was a city founded at an older Egyptian village by the Roman emperor Hadrian to commemorate his deified young belov ...

on the

River Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

in Lower Egypt by the

Via Hadriana The Via Hadriana was an ancient Roman road established by the emperor Hadrian, which stretched from Antinopolis, Antinoöpolis on the River Nile to the Red Sea at Berenice Troglodytica (Berenike). Hadrian had founded Antinoöpolis in memory of his ...

in 137 CE. The trade from Berenice along the

coast is described in the 1st century CE travelogue ''

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and Roman commerce, trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports lik ...

'', written by a Greek merchant based in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

. The ''Periplus'' states that "on the right-hand coast next below Berenice is the country of the Berbers", thereby placing Berenice Troglodytica just north of ancient Barbara. In the 4th century Berenice had again become an active port. Under the Roman administration, Berenice itself formed an entire district with its own prefect, who was called ''Praefectus Berenicidis'', or ''P. montis Berenicidis''. Despite its favorable location, after the 6th century the port was abandoned and the bay has since nearly filled with sediment; it has a sand-bar at its entrance that can only be crossed by shallow-draft boats. The gemsites on

are flooded.

19th century archaeology

In 1818, the ruins of Berenice were identified by

Giovanni Battista Belzoni Giovanni Battista Belzoni (; 5 November 1778 – 3 December 1823), sometimes known as The Great Belzoni, was a prolific Italian explorer and pioneer archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities. He is known for his removal to England of the seven-tonn ...

, confirming an earlier opinion of

d'Anville Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (; born in Paris 11 July 169728 January 1782) was a French geographer and cartographer who greatly improved the standards of map-making. D'Anville became cartographer to the king, who purchased his cartographic ...

. Belzoni wrote that the city measured from north to south, and from east to west. He estimated the ancient population at 10,000. Since then, several excavations have been undertaken. The most important ruin is a temple; the remnants of its sculptures and inscriptions preserve the name of

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

and the head magistrate of the Jews in

under

and Roman rule. Excavations have also produced small figures of many deities, some obscure, including a (goddess?) ''Alabarch'' or ''Arabarch''. The temple is Egyptian style, made of sandstone and a soft calcareous stone. It is long, and wide. A portion of its walls are sculptured with well-executed basso relieves, of Greek workmanship; occasionally the walls are decorated with

hieroglyphics Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...

Recent archaeology

Excavations were launched at Berenike in 1994 by a team of archaeologists from the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

led by Prof. Steven E. Sidebotham, with partners from several other institutions and continued until 2001. Work was resumed by teams from the University of Delaware and the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland, in the winter of 2007–2008 and is still continuing. Apart from the excavations, non-invasive magnetic prospecting was carried out. Tomasz Herbich from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

made a magnetic map of the western part of the site. A large number of significant finds have been made providing evidence of the cargo from the

Malabar Coast The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...

and the presence of

Tamil people The Tamils ( ), also known by their endonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil language is one of the longe ...

from South India being at this last outpost of the Roman Empire (see ancient

Indo-Roman trade relations Indo-Roman trade relations (see also the spice trade and incense road) was trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Trade through the overland caravan routes via Asia Minor and the Middl ...

). :"Among the unexpected discoveries at Berenike were a range of ancient Indian goods, including the largest single concentration (7.55 kg) of black peppercorns ever recovered in the classical Mediterranean world (“imported from Southern India” and found inside a large vessel made of Nile silt in a temple courtyard); substantial quantities of Indian-made fine ware and kitchen cooking ware and Indian style pottery; Indian-made sail cloth, basketry, matting, etc. from trash dumps; a large quantity of

teak wood Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...

, black pepper, coconuts, beads made of precious and semi-precious stones, cameo blanks; “a

Tamil Brahmi Tamil-Brahmi, also known as Tamili or Damili, was a variant of the Brahmi script in southern India. It was used to write inscriptions in Old Tamil.Richard Salomon (1998) ''Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prak ...

graffito mentioning Korra, a South Indian chieftain”; evidence that “inhabitants from Tamil South India (which then included most of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

) were living in Berenike, at least in the early Roman period”; evidence that the Tamil population implied the probable presence of Buddhist worshippers; evidence of Indians at another Roman port 300 km north of Berenike; Indian-made ceramics on the Nile road; a rock inscription mentioning an Indian passing through en route; “abundant evidence for the use of ships built and rigged in India”; and proof “that teak wood (endemic to South India), found in buildings in Berenike, had clearly been reused” (from dismantled ships)." In 2009 the first find of

frankincense Frankincense, also known as olibanum (), is an Aroma compound, aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes, obtained from trees of the genus ''Boswellia'' in the family (biology), family Burseraceae. The word is from Old French ('high-quality in ...

was reported and "two blocks of resin from the Syrian fir tree (''

Abies cilicica ''Abies cilicica'', also known as Cilician fir or Taurus fir, is a species of conifer in the family ''Pinaceae''. It is found in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey. ''Abies cilicica'' and ''Cedrus libani'', together with ''Acer hyrcanum'' subsp. ''tauri ...

''), one weighting about 190 g and the other about 339 g, recovered from 1st century CE contexts in one of the harbor trenches. Produced in areas of greater Syria and Asia Minor, this resin and its oil derivative were used in mummification, as an antiseptic, a diuretic, to treat wrinkles, extract worms and promote hair growth."

“Extensive and intensive research initiated by Iwona Zych in the area of the southern harbor bay has uncovered workshop buildings, remains of ship boards, ropes, mooring lines, as well as a so-called harbor temenos with two structures probably of sacral character – the Lotus Temple and the Square Feature. Berenike in the early Roman period was a vibrant town in the desert where the greatest fortunes of the time were made. The archaeological excavations have uncovered remains of luxury goods, precious glass, bronze figurines,
ostraca An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeology, archaeological or epigraphy, epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer ...
, papyri.”

The expedition also discovered a cemetery of small animals dated , which has been excavated by Marta and Piotr Osypiński from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the

since 2011. In 2019, a 2,300 year-old fortress was discovered by a team of archaeologists from the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

and the Polish Academy of Sciences. The structure, built near the southern frontier, had thicker walls to the west, and served as a hub to transport

war elephants A war elephant is an elephant that is trained and guided by humans for combat purposes. Historically, the war elephant's main use was to charge the enemy, break their ranks, and instill terror and fear. Elephantry is a term for specific mil ...

from Eritrea. In the same year was excavated an

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

temple and there, there were found fragments of a statue of the Meroitic god

Sebiumeker Sebiumeker was a major supreme god of procreation and fertility in Nubian mythology who was primarily worshipped in Meroe, Kush, in present-day Sudan. He is sometimes thought of as a guardian of gateways as his statues are sometimes found near ...

. In 2020–2021, 2,000 year-old remains of monkeys, cats, and dogs were discovered at Berenike to be considered the oldest pet cemetery in the world. In Berenike in March 2022 an American-Polish archaeological mission excavating the main early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis uncovered in the forecourt of the temple a marble statue of a

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

, the ''

Berenike Buddha The ''Berenike Buddha'' is a statue of the Buddha parts of which were discovered in January 2018 and January 2022 in an archaeological excavation in the ancient harbour of Berenike, Egypt, by an American-Polish archaeological mission. The statue ...

''.

Footnotes

References

*I. Zych, J. K. Rądkowska (2019)
"Exotic cults in Roman Berenike? An investigation into two temples in the harbour temenos"
nA. Manzo, C. Zazzaro, & D. Joyce de Falco (eds), ''Stories of Globalisation: The Red Sea and the Persian Gulf from late prehistory to early modernity'', Selected Papers of Red Sea Project VII, Brill nv, Leiden, NL. pp. 225–245 *J. Then-Obłuska (2018)
"Beads and pendants from the Hellenistic to early Byzantine Red Sea port of Berenike, Egypt. Season 2014 and 2015."
''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'', 27 (1), pp. 203–234 *M. Woźniak (2017)
"Shaping a city and its defenses: fortifications of Hellenistic Berenike Trogodytika."
''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'', 26 (2), pp. 43–60. *I. Zych (2017)
"The harbor of early Roman “Imperial” Berenike: overview of excavations from 2009 to 2015."
''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'', 26 (2), pp. 93–132. *M. Osypińska & P. Osypiński (2017)
"New evidence for the emergence of a human–pet relation in early Roman Berenike (1st–2nd century AD)"
''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'', 26 (2), pp. 167–192. *S. E. Sidebotham, I. Zych, J. K. Rądkowska, & M. Woźniak (2015)
"The Berenike Project: Hellenistic fort, Roman harbor and late Roman temple. Archaeological fieldwork and studies in the 2012 and 2013 seasons"
''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'', 24 (1), pp. 297–322. * David Meredith (Dec 1957). "Berenice Troglodytica". ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'', vol. 43, pp. 56–70 * *S. Sidebotham and W. Wendrich, (2001). "Roms Tor am Roten Meer nach Arabien und Indien". ''AW'' 32 (3), p. 251-263.
Berenike Project
run by Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology,

External links

Fordham.edu: ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea''
— ''Schoff translation''.
The Berenike Project
{{Authority control Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Egypt Roman sites in Egypt Ptolemaic colonies in the Red Sea Buildings and structures completed in the 3rd century BC Archaeological sites in Egypt Former populated places in Egypt Red Sea Governorate 3rd-century BC establishments in Egypt