Indo-Roman trade: The ceramic evidence from Egypt

Abstract

The Egyptian Red Sea site of Berenike has long been recognized as a port of foremost importance for the trade between Egypt, Arabia and India. Excavations undertaken at Berenike since have provided tangible archaeological evidence for Indo-Roman trade from a broad spectrum of artefacts, including ceramics, glass beads textiles, as well as archaeobotanical remains 1998: 311-19; and wood, and epigraphic evidence from a single Tamil-Brahmi graffito. This note concentrates on the pottery, in order to draw attention to the range and quantity of material recovered from Berenike with links to India or South Asia, and highlights the scope for future analytical work to refine the source areas of these vessels. The pottery is of interest not only for confirming contact between the two regions, but, in conjunction with other classes of artefacts, investigating the nature of this contact and the traders involved. Because of its context, in association with well-dated Roman material, it also complements the dating evidence from the Indian finds. Most, but certaintly not all, of the sherds come from early Roman deposits of either late Augustan or mid/late 1st-century AD date; those which occur in late Roman deposits are more difficult to judge since many of these contexts contain a high proportion of residual wares, but evidence from the beads indicates flourishing contact between Egypt and Sri Lanka during the late Roman period (Francis in press). More detailed descriptions of the Berenike sherds, particularly the fabrics, can be found elesewhere (Begley and Tomber 1999; Tomber and Begley in press). This note draws heavily on the evidence from Arikamedu, where both forms and fabrics are well published, although increasingly new evidence for many ceramic types and interaction between the regions is available from Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.