Berenike's riches: natural resources and materials in the archaeological record

• Authors: Zych, Iwona

Abstracts

EN

The presentation lists primarily natural resources and other commodities represented in the archaeological record derived from 20 seasons of excavations between 1994 and 2015 at the harbor site of Berenike on the Red Sea, first by a Dutch–American and then by a Polish–American team. Categories include spices/condiments, incense/frankincense, minerals and metals (gold included), precious and semiprecious stones, cameo blanks, ivory, cowry shells, turtle shell, raw glass, as well as botanics (foodstuffs) and exotic and domestic animals, not to mention human slaves. The less obvious resources that are attested indirectly in the archaeological record include water, wine and olive oil. A separate category are the building materials: stone of different kind and wood, both locally procured and imported. The main objective of the project is to work toward a network visualization of the resources (and other commodities) in the archaeological record from the different, currently excavated sites in the trade network and to compare it in the future to the ex-isting network visualization of the list of goods extracted from the Periplus Maris Erythraei, a 1st century AD sailing and trading guide.

Keywords

EN

Berenike; mineral resources

• Publisher: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
• Journal: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 29(1)

Dates

published

2020-11-10

Contributors

author

Zych, Iwona

Identifiers

DOI

10.31338/uw.2083-537x.pam29.1.08