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- Port town and its harbours: sedimentary proxies for landscape and seascape reconstruction of the Greco-Roman site of Berenike Troglodytica, Red Sea coast of Egypt
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Berenike Troglodytica was one of the key harbours on the Red Sea coast during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods and was a major trade and exchange hub connecting the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Berenike’s geographical position was extraordinarily propitious owing partly to its natural harbours, protected against the prevailing northern winds, as well as its location in the vicinity of an ancient viewshed – the large peninsula of Ras Benas. This paper discusses how multifaceted geoarchaeological approaches to the study of ancient ports can contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms and logistics of maritime trade, as well as fluctuations in its quality and quantity. It also disseminates the latest results of geoarchaeological fieldwork and analyses carried out in Berenike’s harbours, with an aim of shedding new light on the significance of the effect that local and regional palaeoclimatic, landscape, seascape and environmental changes had on the development and decline of the port, and its changing role within the Red Sea – Indian Ocean maritime network.
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- The Port of Berenike Troglodytica on the Red Sea: a Landscape-based approach to the study of its harbour and its role in Indo-Mediterranean trade.
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- Ancient ports of trade on the Red Sea coasts – human adaptations to fluctuating land- and sea-scapes
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The Red Sea region is unfavourable for long-shore nautical activity as it lacks natural topographic features that could be used as harbours; there are only a few suitable bays for landing along its coasts, where wadi mouths allow for a break in the reef. However, experiencing seasonally variable winds and currents, parts of the Red Sea constituted favourable marine environments for sea voyaging, contact and trade for millennia. This paper focuses on the influence that the local environmental and climatic context (including land- and sea-scape), had on the location, development, and ultimate success or decline of key Classical (Greco-Roman) ports of trade on the Red Sea coast, most pertinently those involved in exchange on the Spice, Incense and Maritime Silk Routes. The importance of changes in geomorphological, climatic, landscape and sea level configurations that led to the alternation of these human-adapted landscapes will be discussed within the new theoretical framework of ‘Parameters of Attractiveness’ developed whilst focusing on a case study, the Greco-Roman port town of Berenike Troglodytica on the southern Red Sea coast of Egypt. These parameters - grouped into 4 main categories: Sea, Land, Resources, and Socio-Economic and Political - were designed in order to statistically quantify the attractiveness of particular sites along the rims of the Red Sea for use as trade ports.
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- The Maritime context of the tran-Mediterranean–Indian Ocean trade: Critical review of the Roman era vessels of the Red Sea
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The Red Sea was a key region within the trans-Mediterranean-Indian Ocean (TMIO) trade network, and one that is relatively little understood in this context. Most of what we know about seafaring on the Red Sea in the Roman era is derived from a small number of shipwrecks and from the archaeological records of two major ports: Berenike Troglodytica and Myos Hormos. The rigging and sailmaking materials recovered from these sites reveal a marked diversity of vessel types and sizes. This archaeological evidence shows that such ships were rigged and planked in the Mediterranean square-sail fashion, but with the use of eastern (Indian and African) materials. Although Mediterranean-style rigging has not been discovered in archaeological contexts from the Indian Ocean, iconographic representations exist depicting rigging similar to those documented on Mediterranean vessels.
In this paper I will evaluate the evidence that might address the question of whether Red Sea boats were of Mediterranean tradition or bore similarities to Indian or Arab vessels. I will initially focus on the shipwreck evidence for seafaring and boat construction, which I then examine alongside nautical archaeological finds from the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, supplemented by the (admittedly limited) data from the Red Sea region itself. Greco-Roman vessels will then be compared with the sewn-hull tradition boats. These insights will feed into a discussion regarding the type of craft that could have visited the Greco-Roman archaeological port site of Berenike Troglodytica on the southernRed Sea coast of Egypt—a site studied for the author’s doctoral research.
