Berenike as a Harbour for Meroe: New evidence from the 2019 excavations in the Main Temple

Olaf Kaper∗1

1Universiteit Leiden [Leiden] – Pays-Bas

R´esum´e

Since 2015 excavations are being conducted in the Main Temple of Berenike Troglodytika, Egypt, since 2018 with the support of the Thyssen Foundation. The principal discovery in this temple is a rich collection of votive gifts in the form of statuary and their pedestals. Especially the forecourt preserves many private dedicatory inscriptions and fragments of sculptures in stone and metal, mainly dating to the first and second centuries CE. This Egyptian style temple is now known to be dedicated to and the other gods of Coptos, and its oldest decoration dates to the reign of Tiberius. The building may have collapsed as result of an earthquake in the fourth century, after which the cult continued in a different way. Somewhere in the fifth century, the building and its statues were looted, damaged and abandoned. While examining the entrance gateway into the courtyard in 2019, a lifesize statue of the Meroitic god Sebiumeker was found, wearing the crown of the Egyptian god . It had been up outside the entrance gate of the temple, in the tradition of Meroitic temples. Adjacent to the Main Temple was a room in which someone had collected damaged divine statues from the temple probably during the fifth century CE. One of these was a copper alloy statue of 15.7 cm in height, depicting the god Arensnuphis. The presence of Sebiumeker and Arensnuphis make clear that there was a Meroitic community at Berenike, and that the temple of Isis served as their shrine during the early Roman period.

Elsewhere in Berenike, several other small shrines functioned simultaneously. Two of them were excavated in 2019 and Meroitic statues were found also there. As a result, it is time for a reappraisal of the interconnections of Berenike and the Meroitic state during the early Roman period. Despite the physical distance between them, Berenike may have served as a harbour for Meroe, connecting the African nation to the trade routes to both Rome and the east.

∗Intervenant

sciencesconf.org:redsea9:256546