Steven E Sidebotham Libri

Excavations at Berenike, a Greco-Roman harbor on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, have provided extensive evidence for trade with India, South-Arabia and sub-Saharan Africa. The results of the 1999 and 2000 excavations by the joint mission of the University of Delaware, Leiden University, and UCLA, have been published in a comprehensive report, with specialists' analyses of different object groups and an overview of evidence for the trade route from the Indian perspective. The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, plans, and a large foldout map of Berenike and Sikait.

The legendary overland silk road was not the only way to reach Asia for ancient travelers from the Mediterranean. During the Roman Empire’s heyday, equally important maritime routes reached from the Egyptian Red Sea across the Indian Ocean. The ancient city of Berenike, located approximately 500 miles south of today’s Suez Canal, was a significant port among these conduits. In this book, Steven E. Sidebotham, the archaeologist who excavated Berenike, uncovers the role the city played in the regional, local, and “global” economies during the eight centuries of its existence. Sidebotham analyzes many of the artifacts, botanical and faunal remains, and hundreds of the texts he and his team found in excavations, providing a profoundly intimate glimpse of the people who lived, worked, and died in this emporium between the classical Mediterranean world and Asia.