Red Sea archaeology

First published in Buzzle on 16th August 2006

Republished on the same day here:
http://sudaneseonline.com/en2/publish/Articles_and_Analysies_12/Sudan_s_Beja_Blemmyes_and_their_Right_to_Freedom_a_929.shtml

Republished on 23rd August 2006 and discussed in the forum below:
http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62793
At the moment the misinformed international community plans to spend so easily US $ 3 billion for Lebanon's reconstruction, it is essential to highlight that much less money would be enough to bring peace in the strategically crucial area of Eastern Sudan where the Blemmyes / Beja have started their struggle for self-determination and independence. Support to historically indigenous Beja would bring the Khartoum tyrants at the brink of collapse, opening the path of independence for the oppressed peoples of Sudan, and at the same time it would reshape the entire area of the Red Sea where historical nations demand international recognition.

Knowledge regarding prehistoric and Predynastic Egypt is informed significantly by the analysis of Petroglyphs found on rocks at many different desert sites. Here the depictions of boats, called by Winkler “square boats”, are very important for understanding the contacts of Egypt with Eastern Peoples and for the History of Navigation itself. Unknown artists show vessels which  are foreign to Egypt tradition. How was this possible in the fourth millennium BC? What was the level of commercial and cultural contacts with the East ? This paper tries to add a little step forward.

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH: The overall objectives of the University of Toronto expedition to South Sinai include tracing pharaonic routes and camps en route to the turquoise and copper mining region, investigating pharaonic and indigenous camps, mines, and their material culture assemblages in this region, and assessing Egypto-Sinaitic cross-cultural relations within this region. The 2000-2001 reconnaissance work and 2002 excavations in South Sinai focussed on Site 346, a New Kingdom anchorage and copper smelting camp beside the Red Sea, located at the northern end of El-Markha Plain and west of the mining region around Serabit el-Khadim. A topographic map was generated for Site 346 and this mound yielded a limited repertoire of pottery, copper furnaces, copper nodules, and crucible fragments, grinding stones and pounders, lithics, some faience beads, marine shells, urchin spines, and fish bones.  A surface survey revealed two contemporary, small pottery scatters (Sites 346a-b) two km to the south.  The project also investigated a circular, limestone structure (Site 345), 1.7 km to the south of 346.  In addition, the project has incorporated satellite image interpretation to isolate vegetation signatures and associated water sources within the arid environment of El-Markha Plain, thereby detecting potential archaeological sites for ground reconnaissance work. This report concentrates mainly on the results of the 2000-2001 reconnaissance, but incorporates some preliminary results from the 2002 excavations.

DETAILS: This searchable Excel database reflects the collection of key Egyptological, Near Eastern, Nubian, Arabian, Anatolian, and Aegean, plus some selected European, Viking/Norse (new), Newfoundland archaeology (new), Beothuk/Amerindian (new), and other regions' book titles, journal issues, Great Courses lectures, and dvd documentary resources, spanning mainly Prehistory to the Roman period (but also later periods [for selected areas]), to aid in research, teaching courses, and related ventures.  It may be of use to others (e.g., students/public/scholars/librarians), and has formed a base from which I have been building my University's library collections (M. H. Sterne, UAB) on Ancient Egypt, Nubia, Near East, and other areas.  I update this database continuously, and will update this online posting once every six months, or so.  The database is arranged by multiple fields such as author(s), date of publication, title, publication series, edition, translator(s), place of publication, publisher, dates/periods covered by each title, and topic area(s) (I have omitted additional fields here, including the sources already obtained for UAB Sterne Library and sources to be obtained).  The collection is fairly representative for Egyptology, albeit tending to English publications, while other areas are more sporadic (based upon personal research needs, availability of resources, and other factors).  It is searchable within each column, plus region, such as Egypt, Nubia, Near East, Aegean, Europe, Viking, Indus Valley, Southeast Asia, Canada, etc.; DECEMBER 24, 2023: 207 new entries (n = 6,187) since September 30, 2022.

The Red Sea was witness to important events during human history, including the first long steps in a trade network (the spice route) that would drive maritime technology and shape geopolitical fortunes for thousands of years. Punt was a pivotal early node in the rise of this enterprise, serving as an important emporium for luxury goods, including sacred baboons (Papio hamadryas), but its location is disputed. Here, we use geospatial variation in the oxygen and strontium isotope ratios of 155 baboons from 77 locations to estimate the geoprovenance of mummified baboons recovered from ancient Egyptian temples and tombs. Five Ptolemaic specimens of P. anubis (404-40 BC) showed evidence of long-term residency in Egypt prior to mummification, consistent with a captive breeding program. Two New Kingdom specimens of P. hamadryas were sourced to a region that encompasses much of present-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti, and portions of Somalia and Yemen. This result is a testament to the...

This volume draws upon the scholarship on the international trade between the Roman Empire and Eastern regions such as Arabia, Ethiopia and India. Such trade has been often described by ancient sources as a flourishing and very expensive one. More in detail, the book focuses on the life and the development of the ports on the Red Sea, controlled by Rome. These ports acted for centuries as international hubs, linking points between West and East, and they were the gates though which the eastern merchandise would reach the Roman markets. Keeping these remote settlements alive required a big effort on the part of the imperial administration, and some degree of planning to choose how and when to invest in the area. So, over the centuries, the geography of such ports changed dramatically. Most works published so far have explained such changes in terms of decline and economic shrinking, due to the “late antique phase” of the Roman Empire. This monograph looks for a different explanation and stretches the analysis into the late antique period, showing hot it was not simply a period of decline and economic recession, but rather of reorganisation. The volume aims finally to reach a new and more full level of understanding of the Roman economic policy in the Red Sea between the first century BC and the sixth AD.

ABSTRACT: El-Markha Plain is a key coastal region providing an anchorage for Egyptian expeditions traveling to the copper and turquoise mining region in South Sinai.  The University of Toronto expedition investigated a mound at Ras Budran and uncovered a late Old Kingdom, circular stone structure. It represents one of three Egyptian “forts” identified from the Early Dynastic through Old Kingdom period and augments two published Old Kingdom sites in South Sinai. It clarifies and underscores the perceived dangers in and the importance of South Sinai to Egyptian mining expeditions during this period. It displays an unusual circular design for an ancient Egyptian structure and an uncommon application of stone to a “fort”.  Its construction, occupation, possible destruction, and abandonment reflect contemporary late Old Kingdom records for Egyptian campaigns against Asiatic “Sand-dwellers” and a Bedouin massacre of an Egyptian expedition beside the Red Sea. The site illuminates multiple aspects of a period associated with the Old Kingdom’s “collapse” and the activities and cross-cultural interactions of a transitory garrison on Egypt’s eastern frontier.

Between 1999 and 2003 the University of Southampton conducted excavations on the site of Quseir al-Qadim (western shores of the Red Sea), a place that had not been examined since the excavations by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago ended in 1982. The new work was prompted by the discovery that the site of Quseir al-Qadim was, in all probability, not that of the minor port of Leucos Limen, as had been previously thought, but none other than Myos Hormos. This port, together with its sister harbour Berenike, articulated Rome’s trade with India and the East. This second volume concentrates on the finds made during the excavation period and the volume concludes with an overview of what we now know of the nature and function of the ports of Myos Hormos and Quseir al-Qadim and a discussion of outstanding problems which can only be resolved by further work.
This volume presents and discusses the large volume of finds from the excavations at the Red Sea port of Myos Hormos, a major node in Rome's trade with the east. The many specialist chapters focus on ceramics, metal artefacts, glass, wooden artefacts, ship fittings, finds related to fishing, plant remains, faunal remains, basketry and some written material. A seperate volume, however will cover the pottery, textiles, palaeobotany, ostraca and paper documents.

La conquista romana del Mediterráneo oriental y de Egipto amplió los horizontes de los mercaderes ítalo-romanos como nunca antes. A los pocos años de ocupar el territorio, eran cientos las caravanas y barcos que partían anualmente hacia la India y el lejano Oriente desde las ciudades y puertos ubicados en los límites del Imperio romano. Será con Augusto cuando se sienten las bases de un mercado cada vez más globalizado, permitiendo la libre circulación de los productos más deseados por las élites urbanas de la metrópolis romana.
Esta investigación aborda mediante el análisis epigráfico de más de doscientas inscripciones funerarias quienes fueron los personajes ligados al comercio y fabricación de joyas, vestidos, tintes y ungüentos en la ciudad de Roma. Estos productos se comercializaron entre la élite de la capital y entre los consumidores selectivos que emulaban la conducta de la aristocracia romana. El marco cronológico de estudio comprende la etapa que va desde finales del periodo republicano a finales del siglo tercero d.C. Y es precisamente el momento
relacionado con el cambio de era y el primer siglo d.C. cuando se ha podido relacionar cronológicamente un mayor número de inscripciones. A su vez, poder identificar la localización de sus tiendas o talleres nos ha permitido conocer de primera mano los diversos cambios en la topografía urbana de la ciudad.
Asimismo, con el objetivo de conocer los lugares de producción o extracción de estos bienes de carácter suntuarios se han descrito las diferentes rutas intercontinentales de aprovisionamiento de estos productos. En este punto, el análisis de los diferentes agentes
implicados en este comercio permite conocer las diferentes áreas de actuación, cuáles fueron los mercados más visitados y cuál fue el rol que jugó cada una de las potencias implicadas en este intercambio. Para ello se ha estudiado cuál fue el marco común de entendimiento para establecer estas relaciones.
Los resultados obtenidos han permitido ampliar la descripción tenida hasta ahora sobre un comercio tan selecto, así como proponer nuevas hipótesis interpretativas del tema.

English:
nunc patimur longae pacis mala, saevior armis
luxuria incubuit victumque ulciscitur orbem
(JUVENAL. SAT. II, 6, 292-297)

With these words the Roman author Juvenal evokes the evils associated with unbridled lust which had pushed Rome after the conquest of the so far known world. In this sense, the conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean and the annexation of Egypt under direct control by Rome resulted in the restoration and improvement of trade routes to the East, place of origin of most luxury goods markets as valued in Rome.
As part of our thesis about the luxury trade in the city of Rome during the Early Roman Empire, where we look specifically at luxury products, we wish to introduce how new access to these goods sparked a change in Roman society. In this respect, thanks to the study of lapidary inscriptions related with actors linked to the development and sale of
exotic products can be examined a series of changes that occurred from the new Roman state-run establishment under the principality of Augustus. The classical tradition will oppose a new order marked by the Roman elites demand for expensive products, creating fashions and customs unexplored to date, trying to slow it down with the
enactment of laws against excess and access.
These changes will be accompanied by other observable also in this work, highlighting, the emergence of new commercial characters and their existential increase in Rome: margaritarii, coronarii, vascularii, vestiarii, etc. In this process, indirectly new terms will be minted for defining new jobs and others will vary depending on use. Also, there
is a growing desire to show the life and personal work on the tombstones, making clear a new cultural fashion. Finally, this cultural transformation will extend to an urban modification of the Urbs, lifting exclusive spaces for the purchase and sale of these products

In three earlier articles,, we briefly described the place of Somalia as commercial and navigational hub at the times of the Late Antiquity, we identified Malao (today's Berbera) as capital of 'the Other Berberia', and we underscored the fact that the port of call Avalites (Assab) was presented as part of Somalia (the 'Other Berberia'), and not Axumite Abyssinia. In addition, we refuted aberrations advanced by Jesse Benjamin, who believes that (no Somalis, no Yemenites, no Meroitic Ethiopians, no Axumite Abyssinians but) Nabataean Aramaeans controlled the African land routes and that these roads helped transport the largest part of the merchandise.

We referred to the major textual source of our information, namely the Ancient Greek text 'Periplus of the Red Sea', which was written ca. 70 CE by an anonymous Alexandrian Egyptian merchant and captain, who certainly had personal experience in vast parts of that navigation and trade network area and wished to compile a kind of guide for sailors and traders.

From 'the Other Berberia' to Azania

Completing the series of articles on the excerpts of the 'Periplus of the Red Sea' that bear evidence to the 'Other Berberia', a country that spanned from Eritrea's Assab to the Somali harbour of Ras Hafun, we will focus here on the easternmost coasts of that land.
2008-05-19
http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard/Article/Sailing-around-the-Horn-of-Africa--before-2000-years/102092

The harbor of Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt was a major transit point in the longdistance trade of luxury commodities between the Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean Basin. The heyday of the commerce and the prosperity of the port lasted from the 1st to the mid-2nd century AD. A huge quantity of commodities passed through the port, imported not only for the purpose of exchange, but also for self-consumption. Glassware was among them. The high proportion of wares of high quality and exceptional esthetic value is quite extraordinary, even by modern standards. These wares highlight the position of Berenike in the trade, but they also showcase the city's wealth and the great demand for luxury glass that existed there in the first centuries of the Roman Empire.

In the year 24 BCE, Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus ordered the Prefect of Egypt the beginning of a military campaign to seize control of Arabia Felix rich and important trade routes is controlled. In this article we will discuss the circumstances surrounding this mission and its unexpected outcome, which from Rome conditioned not to think again the dominance of that region.

The article compares two customs gates in the Red Sea during Roman and Byzantine rule. The main assumption is that it is possible to shed some light on some elements of the Roman organisation, starting from the analysis of the Byzantine one.

A preliminary reconnaissance visit was recently made to the site of Dahlak Kebir in the Dahlak Islands, Eritrea. The archaeological remains which were recorded attested to the importance of the Dahlak Islands which appeared in historical annals around 100 B. C., andfunctioned as major entrepot of Red Sea trade and a staging point between Africa and Arabia during both Aksumite and Islamic periods. Various features were noted including tombs and cemeteries (both were previously investigated by other researchers), settlement areas comprising both settlement mounds and remains of a stone town, what appeared to be a harbour area, and numerous cisterns ctnd tanks for storing water. Much of the surface area of the site was rife with archaeological material such as glass and. stone beads, glass vessel and bracelet fragments, unglazed pottery of probable local manufacture, and Chinese and Islamic glazed pottery, tentatively dated to the medieval period (twelfth-fifteenth centuries A. D.). The visit to Dahlak Kebir allowed a number of preliminary observations about the site and its role in Red Sea trade. Of prime importance was the indisputable link between the growth of Dahlak Kebir and trade which was both local and international in focus. The potential for further archaeological research on this important site is thus indicated. After all, the site is a key Location in reconstructing the mechanisms of Red Sea trade over time.

Eritrea has a remarkable, but understudied, archaeological past. During the first millennium AD, urban centers on the southern Red Sea coast of Africa developed ties to far-flung powers like Rome and hubs of commerce in western India. Located 50 kilometers south of modern Massawa, Adulis was a prominent trade port along a key sea route in the Classical World. The settlement also operated as a conduit for communications between the Nile Valley and the western Indian Ocean. First identified, sketched, and test excavated by archaeologists in the nineteenth-century, Adulis remains poorly known by modern scientific standards. Until a decade ago, even Adulis's mention in the Periplus and a surge in Eritrean archaeology did not attract new researchers to the site. More and better information about Adulis and a closer study of the archaeological remains from the settlement and its wider vicinity are needed to better comprehend the site, its ancient community, and its physical and social context, origins, character, role, and decline.

In 1997, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology conducted under the author's direction the excavation of a mid-first millennium AC shipwreck in Eritrea. The shipwreck is the first of its kind excavated in the Red Sea and yield a view of the commerce by sea of goods originating in Byzantine Aila (modern Aqaba) including a specific amphora type and costrels, among other artifacts. This preliminary report outlines the discoveries of the excavation season.

The author posted independently in his blog the answer that he gave to a viewer of a video-presentation of my article "Yemenis are Not Arab - Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis". The video is uploaded in many portals; indicatively:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpOx9xiHNGc
The author referred to me before replying and so his answer fully represents my opinion on the matter.
https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/if-yemenis-are-not-arab-why-did-the-romans-call-yemen-arabia-felix/

This article proposes a reinterpretation of the Monumentum Adulitanum, a set of two Greek inscriptions copied by Cosmas at Adulis, an Eritrean port of the Red Sea, in the early 6th century AD. Elaborating on the topographic and textual relationship between the two inscriptions, it is suggested that the second one, generally attributed to either an Aksumite or a South Arabian king, could rather be attributed to the sovereign of a still poorly-documented Eritrean coastal polity showing Hellenistic and Greco-Roman influences. Internal analysis of the inscription as well as historical and archaeological evidence reinforces this hypothesis

The present course encompasses all Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek, and Latin historical sources, i.e. texts pertaining to the land of Somalia, notably the Expedition to Punt by Queen Hatshepsut (written ca. 1475), the Periplus of the Red Sea, and Ptolemy’s Geography. It involves extensive study of, and viewpoints on, the texts and the related bibliography. The identification of the land of Punt with Somalia is confirmed through approaches of theoretical – cosmological, religious – political, and natural – commercial – navigational dimension. Through study of the Periplus of the Red Sea, the course highlights the importance of Somalia (named as ‘The Other Berberia’ for the northern coast up to Ras Asiir and as ‘Azania’ for the eastern coast down to Darussalam) in the trade between Rome, Alexandria, India, Central Asia, and China for the period 30 BCE – 622 CE. How well known Somalia was to Roman and Alexandrian scholars and geographers is revealed through the study of all excerpts of Pliny’s Natural History and Ptolemy’s Geography that concern the Horn of Africa country. An overview of Cosmas Indicopleustes’ Christian Topography helps us realize what was known of the Horn of Africa to the merchants and the academics of Eastern Mediterranean 50 years before the birth of Prophet Muhammad.
Somali International University, Mogadishu - 2013

Did ancient navigators routinely cross the open sea, or did they stay within view of the coast whenever they could? This seemingly straightforward question touches on debates of ancient technology, risk management and economic rationality, and has been debated for decades in Mediterranean historiography. With regard to the Red sea, however, we know two things for sure: sailors from the Hellenistic period, until the twilight of traditional sailing practices in the 20th century, would prefer to stay within sight of the coast and put in at night whenever they could; we also know that the Roman navigators operating in the Red sea in the first centuries CE were an exception. They would set course straight down the middle of the sea for the almost 2000-kilometre passage from the ports of Egypt to the straits of Bab al-Mandab. Why did the Romans do things differently, and how did they go about it? Combining ancient texts and ethnographic accounts with the approach known as common-sense geography, alongside GIS tools and data, straightforward answers are offered below. The case study moreover highlights the methodological possibilities and challenges offered by remote sensing and spatial data for the study of the distant past.

During the Neolithic period,  the southern Red Sea was crossed by the trade of obsidian between the Horn of Africa and the yemeni Tihama region, in front of the Hanish Islands, and in the following millennia it saw the Egyptian expeditions to the land of Punt.
The aim of this paper, then, is to highlight the position of the Hanish Islands at a crossroads of communications from prehistoric times to the Egyptian Dynastic era. So further research in and around the Hanish Islands, including underwater surveys in particular, would seem to be highly opportune.

In March 2012, Philipps-Universität Marburg conducted a 12-day survey along a section of the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia reaching from Rabigh in the north to al-Shoaiba in the south. As the beginning of a five-year archaeological project, this preliminary venture sought to define the logistical situation and to discover any sites of archaeological importance that may exist within the zone. The survey included the search for and the examination of harbor sites, as well as shipwrecks. Sites of antiquity and the Early Islamic period were of particular interest. The results of the survey included the discovery of a harbor and a shipwreck of the late third or the fourth century that contained Roman amphoras, among other objects.

This work focuses on the study of the canal that in the past linked the Nile with the Red Sea. Control over the Nile through an artificial canal allowed the Egyptians to use water as means to increase mobility, which permitted a higher transit of goods and people between the river delta and the Gulf of Suez. In addition to being used to irrigate the territory crossing Wadi Tumilat, and as a defense against the enemies from the East, the Egyptian canal that started at the Pelusiac arm was used mainly to import sumptuary goods from the East and to export grain and other products to the East. Also, fluvial transit through the canal reduced travel time and increased the amount of goods being transported.
Key words: Canal of the Pharaohs, Wadi Tumilat, mega structure, sumptuary trade, East

ABSTRACT: The Sinai Peninsula has provided a continuous land bridge connecting northeast Africa and Asia, and particularly Ancient Egypt with the Levant.  This paper focuses mainly upon past through recent explorations of Ancient Egypt’s Prehistoric through pharaonic interactions with the Sinai and its environs, including the Negev, and in particular considers our changing perceptions of Egyptian contact and influence, and also examines Near Eastern, Arabian, and other cross-cultural relations with the Sinai.  The nature of these cross-cultural relations fluctuates and changes, taking place in three main areas: the North Sinai transit route between Egypt’s East Delta and Southwest Levant, a Red Sea crossing to South Sinai to obtain turquoise, copper, and other materials, and a more complex, adjacent Negev route between the Red Sea and Southwest Levant, which variously accommodated Egyptians, Canaanites, and others mining copper in the southern Arabah and Faynan, obtaining Red Sea shells, and getting aromatics from Arabia. PUBLICATION PDF (i.e., 3 years after initial release date). See this issue of JAEI for other articles on Sinai.