Project: Sail South to Reach the East

Sail South to Reach the East – Berenike and Red Sea as a Lacking Puzzle of Late Antique Indian Ocean Trade, Full Quantification Method

Keywords: Red Sea, Berenike, Sikait, Amphorae, Indian Ocean Trade, Long Distance Trade, Pottery diffusion, Kitchen Pottery

Red Sea since Hellenistic era was a region that played a role of the intermediary agent between Mediterranean and Indian Ocean markets. Blemmies, people living in the Eastern Desert in Egypt, took major part in facilitating this trade in the Late Antique period (from 4th to 6th c. AD). They managed to restore the greatness of the Berenike – long-distance trade emporium on the Red Sea coast, and Senskis – mining settlement located on the banks of Wadi Sikait, where since Roman times emeralds were extracted and exported to India and Sri Lanka. Inhabitants of both settlements left rich material culture and perfectly preserved architectural remains. Main goal of the project is to study the ceramic material produced during the excavations on both sites. Pottery will serve as a tool and evidence for studying economic interdependencies between settlements of Eastern Desert and surrounding regions (Indian Ocean, Nile Valley and Eastern Mediterranean). Innovative methodology supported by the broad petrographic studies aims to assess from where cities of Berenike and Sikait were supplied with the most necessary and common goods, and to research how deep the local economy of Eastern Desert was integrated with Indian Ocean trade.

Links

• Sikait Project Facebook account, Instagram account
• Berenike Project Facebook account, Instagram account

In social media: #Sail_South, #Pottery_studies, #Quantification, #Berenike, #Amphorae, #Common_Ware