Religion and Burial at the Ptolemaic-Roman Red Sea Emporium of Berenike, Egypt

Abstract

Partial excavation of five or possibly six religious edifices at the Ptolemaic- Roman (third century BC-sixth century AD) Red Sea emporium of Berenike, Egypt, chronicles many aspects of the sacred, especially in the middle and late Roman periods. We know far less about Ptolemaic and early Roman era religious life at the port. Epigraphic remains and artifacts of a devotional nature also provide insights into the spiritual lives of those residing in or passing through the city. Egyptian, classical Greco- Roman and Hellenistic hybrid deities predominated with evidence of Christian, Palmyrene, South Arabian, and Zoroastrian religious activities as well. There may also be some data on the religious practices of indigenous desert dwellers, the Blemmyes, the Trog(l)odites/Trogodytes, the Ichthyophagi, and people from Nubia and, perhaps, Meroë. We know far less about the burial practices of Berenike ’ s inhabitants. Aside from a few makeshift interments and disarticulated remains, only a small portion of a cemetery at the edge of the site has been excavated and many hundreds of tombs, mostly robbed, have been examined southwest and west of the city. Both necropoleis are late Roman in date; the one adjacent to the city preserves different modes of burial depending, most likely, on the economic circumstances, ages, or ethnic identities of the deceased entombed there. Paradoxically, though there is ample documentation for peoples from South Asia and the African Kingdom of Axum residing at or regularly passing through Berenike, little or no recognizable evidence of their religious procliv- ities or burial customs has been recorded.