Berenike was a nexus for people, ideas and products passing between the northwestern Indian Ocean-Red Sea and the Mediterranean world between the early third century BC and the sixth century AD. During its eight-hundred-year history this Red Sea emporium experienced nadirs and zeniths in its fortunes.

One of many ports on the Red Sea founded by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Berenike began as a point through which elephants passed during their transfer by sea from what are now Sudan and Eritrea to Egypt. They were then taken across the desert to the Nile Valley where they underwent training to serve in the Ptolemaic military. Other mercantile activities also took place during the Hellenistic period at Berenike.

Berenike’s fortunes grew dramatically after the Roman annexation of Egypt in 30 BC. At their peak, contacts radiated from Berenike east and south to Indonesia, South Asia, southern Arabia and the Indian Ocean coast of Africa, and as far west as the Iberian Peninsula and northwestern Africa.

Berenike’s population at this time was very cosmopolitan as reflected in the religions practiced, the food consumed, and the languages spoken there attest. We have unearthed at least five shrines and temples (including a church) many dedicated to multiple deities. The wide array of floral and faunal remains attests dietary patterns of different ethnicities. Our excavations have documented a dozen different written languages from Europe, Africa and Asia.

This lecture will examine many aspects of our excavations at Berenike over the past quarter century.

Steven Sidebotham is a professor in the History Department at the University of Delaware. His major research interest is commercial and cultural contacts between the Mediterranean world on the one hand and the Red Sea-Indian Ocean basin on the other from Hellenistic times until the advent of Islam.

He is author, co-author, editor and co-editor of numerous publications. Since 1972 he has participated in 65 archaeological projects in Italy, Greece, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and India. He has been co-director of the Berenike Project since 1994.