Author:
Publication: CNN News
Date: June 12, 2002
[Caption] Local Ababda nomads dig
in one of the streets in Berenike, which holds an array of artifacts that
scientists say reveals an "impressive" sea trade between the Roman Empire
and India.
Los Angeles, California (AP) - Spices,
gems and other exotic cargo excavated from an ancient port on Egypt's Red
Sea show that the sea trade 2,000 years ago between the Roman Empire and
India was more extensive than previously thought and even rivaled the legendary
Silk Road, archaeologists say.
"We talk today about globalism as
if it were the latest thing, but trade was going on in antiquity at a scale
and scope that is truly impressive," said the co-director of the dig, Willeke
Wendrich of the University of California at Los Angeles.
Wendrich and Steven Sidebotham of
the University of Delaware report their findings in the July issue of the
journal Sahara.
Historians have long known that
Egypt and India traded by land and sea during the Roman era, in part because
of texts detailing the commercial exchange of luxury goods, including fabrics,
spices and wine.
Now, archaeologists who have spent
the last nine years excavating the town of Berenike say they have recovered
artifacts that are the best physical evidence yet of the extent of sea
trade between the Roman Empire and India.
They say the evidence indicates
that trade between the Roman Empire and India was as extensive as that
of the Silk Road, the trade route that stretched from Venice to Japan.
Silk, spices, perfume, glass and other goods moved along the Silk Road
between about 100 B.C. and the 15th century.
"The Silk Road gets a lot of attention
as a trade route, but we've found a wealth of evidence indicating that
sea trade between Egypt and India was also important for transporting exotic
cargo, and it may have even served as a link with the Far East," Sidebotham
said.
Huge stash of peppercorns
Among their finds at the site near
Egypt's border with Sudan: more than 16 pounds (7 kilograms) of black peppercorns,
the largest stash of the prized Indian spice ever recovered from a Roman
archaeological site.
[Caption] This Indian cotton textile
was excavated from a Roman trash dump in the ancient Egyptian town of Berenike.
Berenike lies at what was the southeastern
extreme of the Roman Empire and probably functioned as a transfer port
for goods shipped through the Red Sea. Trade activity at the port peaked
twice, in the first century and again around 500, before it ceased altogether,
possibly after a plague.
Ships would sail between Berenike
and India during the summer, when monsoon winds were strongest, Wendrich
said. >From Berenike, camel caravans probably carried the goods 240 miles
(386 kilometers) west to the Nile, where they were shipped by boat to the
Mediterranean port of Alexandria, she said. From there, they could have
moved by ship through the rest of the Roman world.
Mediterranean goods, including wine
from the Greek island of Kos and fine tableware, moved in the opposite
direction.
The Associated Press
