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The Eastern Desert of Egypt during the Greco-Roman Period: Archaeological Reports

 | 
Jean-Pierre Brun
, 
Thomas Faucher
, 
Bérangère Redon
, 
et al.

Berenike in Light of Inscriptions, Ostraca, and Papyri

Rodney Ast

Full text

1Greek and Latin are not the only languages that survive at Berenike. There is Egyptian as well, plus some exotic languages, such as South Arabian, Axumite, and Tamil. My expertise, however, is in Greco-Roman sources, so I will survey only the Greek and Latin writings, which are extant in ostraca, inscriptions, and papyri totaling well over 700 objects. Our earliest Greek text is a fragmentary inscription dated to the second half of the second century BC (I.Pan 70 = http://inscriptions.packhum.org/​text/​219386?&bookid=372&location=9). It comes from the Great Temple and contains part of a dating clause plus a reference to somebody with the rank of chief bodyguard (archisomatophylax). The latest dated text that we have is a well-known temple dedication from Sikait, which was put up at some point during the sole reign of Gallienus, in the 260s (SB 5.8384 = I.Pan 69 = http://inscriptions.packhum.org/​text/​219385?bookid=372&location=9). Insecurely dated material from the region, such as the possible gravestone for Adidos of Pharan, found at Wâdi Lahma, pushes the extant Greek evidence as late as the 6th century (Sidebotham-Zitterkopf-Helms 2000, pp. 123-126).

2The bulk of written material comes, however, from the first century AD. It can be divided into two principal groups: the first are the ostraca belonging to the Nicanor archive, which were first published in 1930 and re-edited in 2012 (O.Petr. Mus. 112-206). These are mainly receipts for the transport of goods between Coptos and Berenike and Coptos and Myos Hormos. They are dated as early as 6 BC and as late as AD 68, with most written in the reigns of Tiberius (14-37) and Claudius (41-54). The second group are texts that have been found in excavations conducted by Steve Sidebotham and his team over the past couple decades. These documents tend to come from the third quarter of the first century, as late as the emperor Titus (79-81). In addition to the two groups, there exists a handful of inscriptions from the reigns of Domitian (81-96) and Trajan (98-117), which round out the first century and give us a peek at the second.

3This brief sketch should give some idea of the chronological horizon of our texts. As for content, much of the documentation centers on the activities of bands of cameldrivers. In fact, if I had to give my paper a subtitle and if there were not some exceedingly interesting texts that were not related to cameldrivers, I might have called it “A Century of Camel-driving Around Berenike.” The cameldrivers, who were organized in groups called dekaniai, or ten packs, each of which was led by a dekanos, provided crucial support to operations throughout the Eastern Desert, whether quarrying, trade, or other (O.Did., pp. 57-67). These individuals, mainly men but the occasional woman, bear mostly Egyptian names, many of them theophoric, as well as mixed Greek-Egyptian filiations. Their family-operated businesses, if we can call them that, survived multiple generations. Viewing Berenike through the lens of the cameldrivers allows us to consider a number of important topics related to the site, such as trade, religion, the Roman army, society, and culture.

4Let us look at our first group of ostraca, receipts from the Nicanor archive. Nicanor was a cameldriver and he, his brothers, and his sons ensured delivery of goods to agents at Myos Hormos and Berenike, who were acting on behalf of merchants, some of whom were big international traders and others, leading local men, especially from Coptos. The most common commodities found in the ostraca are wheat and wine, but we also have receipts for pharmaka (medicines and other agents, some of which may have been used for textile dyeing, O.Petr. Mus. p. 164); the receipts also concern deliveries of barley, lentils, anise, tow, leather bags, oil, bread, wood planks, clothing, etc (see the discussion of goods in Ruffing 1993).

5We usually cannot tell if the goods were meant for people living in Berenike, or for outgoing sailors, or for sale abroad. E. Denecker and K. Vandorpe have suggested in a study of amphora seals that wine and pharmaka were the primary export goods and that wheat was for local consumption (Denecker-Vandorpe, p. 123). Ruffing tends to the view that most goods were for consumption in the harbors (Ruffing 1993, pp. 23-24). If any wheat was being exported to foreign markets, it was probably in small quantities (Periplus 24, 28).

6The best way to illustrate the contents of the Nicanor ostraca is to let them speak for themselves.

  ̣  ̣  ̣ο̣υ̣ς Μ̣άρκου Ἰουλίου Ἀλεξάνδρου Νικάνο-

ρι Πανῆτος χαίρειν. ἔχω παρὰ σου̑ ἐπὶ Βε-

ρενείκης εἰς τὸν Μάρκου Ἰουλίου Ἀλε-

ξάνδρου του̑ ἐμου̑ κυρίου λόγον φάλανγας

5

φι̣λυρίνας ἑπτὰ (ἔτους) γ Τιβερίο̣υ̣ Κλα̣υδί̣ο̣υ

Κα̣ί̣σ̣α̣ρος Σεβαστου̑ Γερμαν̣ι̣κ̣ο̣υ̑ Αὐτοκ̣ρ̣ά̣-

τ̣ο̣ρ̣ο̣ς̣ Ἐπε<ὶ>φ κ (hand 2) Κόσμος Μάρκου Ἰ̣ο̣υ̣λ̣ί̣ο̣υ̣ Ἀλεξάν̣δ̣ρ̣ο̣υ̣

ἔχω τὰ προκίμενα.

(O.Petr. Mus. 173 = O.Petr. 267 = C.Pap. Jud. 2, 419c =

http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.petr.mus;;173)

-ous, slave of Marcus Julius Alexander to Nicanor son of Panes, greetings. I have from you at Berenike on the account of my master, Marcus Julius Alexander, 7 beams of linden wood. Year 3 of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Emperor, Epeiph 20. (Hand 2) I Kosmos slave of Marcus Julius Alexander have the aforementioned goods.”

This receipt was submitted to Nicanor by an agent of the merchant Marcus Julius Alexander. In it, the agent, a probable slave named Kosmos, acknowledges delivery of pieces of linden wood, which are assigned to the account (or logos) of his master, Marcus Julius Alexander. The date is July 14, 43. Marcus Julius is illustrative of one of the types of people involved in trade in the Eastern Desert: he was a member of a prominent Jewish family at Alexandria; his brother, Tiberius Julius Alexander, was prefect of Egypt; his uncle was the philosopher Philo; his father Alexander, arabarch at Alexandria, was the magistrate responsible for the collection of customs dues; Marcus himself was married to the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I. We are thus talking about high society, by any measure.

7Marcus Julius Alexander is not the only merchant of high standing who appears in these receipts. There is at least one other arabarch, possibly two, and one high-ranking equestrian, named Gaius Norbanus Ptolemaios, who served simultaneously as iuridicus and idios logos in the reign of the emperor Nero (Denecker-Vandorpe 2007, p. 122; Cuvigny 1998). In addition to these men, we also encounter imperial freedmen with commercial interests at Berenike. Notable among them is Gaius Julius Epaphroditos, a slave of the house of Augustus. He is mentioned in nearly a dozen ostraca from the Julio-Claudian period that have been found in the early Roman dump at Berenike (Fig. 1a and 1b) and in one plaster jar stopper, probably from AD 18/19 (Denecker-Vandorpe, p. 122; the ostraca are O.Berenike 1.80-85 and O.Berenike 2.184-188).

Fig. 1a

Fig. 1a

O.Berenike 1.84 (inv. 19047).

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Fig. 1b

Fig. 1b

O.Berenike 2.187 (inv. 48012).

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8A third group of merchants comprises members of the local Egyptian elite. An important and well-attested representative of them is the family of Paminis son of Parthenios, who along with his sons Parthenios, Paniskos, and Psenpnouthis appear in both papyrological and inscriptional sources (Bingen 1984, pp. 360-361). The family belonged to the Egyptian priestly class at Coptos, and some of their names are common to the area. “Paminis” and “Paniskos,” for example, point to the cult of Min/Pan, the principal god at Coptos, and are thus typical of local onomastics. Indeed, many Egyptian names attested in Berenike during this period reflect the primary cults in and around Coptos, namely, those of Min/Pan, Isis, Horos, Harpocrates, and Geb (see the intro. to O.Berenike 1 and 2).

9Paminis and his family appear as merchants in ca. 10 ostraca from the Nicanor archive, in which their account is credited with shipments of wheat. In a receipt dated to AD 29 (O.Petr. Mus. 158 = O.Petrie 231 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.petr.mus;;158), an agent called Haryothes, another local name which means “the healthy Horos,” acknowledges receipt at Berenike on the account of Paminis and his son Paniskos of 24 artabas of wheat. If we knew nothing of the family, we might have supposed that Paminis and sons were just some hellenized locals operating a trading business. But we do know more.

10In addition to the ostraca, there are over twenty Greek and Egyptian inscriptions from Coptos that attest, above all, Paminis’s son Parthenios. In these, he is usually described as a representative (Grk. προστάτης) of Isis, and in one, he dedicates, together with his father Paminis, a peribolos to Isis, Harpocrates, and Pan. The inscriptions concerning Parthenios date from the reigns of Tiberius to Nero. A typical example of one of Parthenios’s dedications is I.Portes 58 (http://inscriptions.packhum.org/​text/​219877?&bookid=375&location=9), which was erected for the god Kronos, Isis’s father, on July 5, 32. The Greek part of it reads: “On behalf of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, year 18, Epeiph 11. For Kronos the greatest god. Parthenios son of Paminis, prostates of Isis.”

11A bilingual Hieroglyphic/Demotic stele from the reign of Nero (Farid 1995, no. 14) paints a very similar picture of Parthenios, where, again, he is said to be Isis’s servant —the importance of Isis, not only at Coptos, but also at Berenike, is something that we will return to. The sheer number of inscriptions attesting Parthenios, plus his family’s obvious high standing in the Nicanor archive, combine to show the family’s prominence within the Coptite community of elite Egyptian families.

12It should be noted, too, that a dekanos named Parthenios son of Paminis appears in the water archive discovered at Berenike in 2009 (O.Berenike 3.326 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;3;326, 359 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;3;359, 409 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;3;409, 420 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;3;420, and 426 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;3;426). It is tempting to identify him with the man we have been discussing, who is attested as early as AD 21/22 and as late as the early 60s, but given the presumed date of the water archive in the reigns of Vespasian and Titus (that is, the late 60s to early 80s), it might be someone else, perhaps a member of the same family.

13In the Nicanor ostraca, we likely get our earliest evidence for international trade at Berenike. Texts found in the early Roman dump at the site and published in O.Berenike 1 and 2 by Roger Bagnall, Arthur Verhoogt, and Christina Helms expand this view. The majority of these documents are orders to allow passage through the gate at Berenike. They were issued by customs agents at Coptos to colleagues in Berenike for cameldrivers delivering goods to the harbor. By allowing passage, the ostraca presumably confirm receipt of customs dues at Coptos. Unlike the Nicanor texts, the customs passes are seldom dated, but archeological context, individuals attested also in other texts, and the few dates that we do get suggest a timeframe in the third quarter of the first century.

14The customs passes are especially valuable for the light they shed on some of the export commodities that were sent to Berenike, above all, Italian and Laodicean wine. We know from the Periplus (6 and 49) that precisely these two wines were sought at the Axumite port of Adulis and at Barygaza in India. In O.Berenike 1.39 (http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;1;39) (Fig. 2), a man bearing the Semitic name Rhobaos tells those at the gate in Berenike to let Heracles pass with his 20 hollow-lidded jars of Italian wine and 28 Laodicean, which are to be loaded on to the ship (eis exartismon). While we cannot be sure that the wine was not meant to be consumed by those on the ship, it is very possible that it was destined for a foreign market.

Fig. 2

Fig. 2

O.Berenike 1.39 (inv. 19028).

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15As an aside, I will mention that, in addition to Greek, Roman, and Egyptian onomastics, written records from Berenike offer the occasional Semitic (e.g. Palmyrene and Nabataean), Thracian, Celtic, Germanic, and even Barbarian names, that is, those of barbarians resident in the Eastern Desert who interacted with the Greek and Latin speakers. Such diverse onomastics lend a multi-ethnic feel that is characteristic of a port city.

16Supplementing what we have learned about trade operations from caches of ostraca such as the customs passes, two Greek inscriptions found in 2015 in an enclosed area near the entrance to the Great Temple (Fig. 3) have given us welcome information about the bureaucracy that supported trade, as well as insight into local religion (Ast, Bagnall 2015). Although the texts were incised more than sixty years apart –one is from the year 49, the other from 112– they are both concerned with the office of the Receiver, or paralemptes, and both commissioned by secretaries, grammateis.

17The paralemptes was a customs offical who worked at Myos Hormos and, as the new inscriptions tell us, also at Berenike. He was presumably not the same as the officer with this title in Alexandria and Leuke Kome who oversaw collection of the 25% state tax. Our paralemptes was responsible for assessing imported goods at the port and for their storage and later delivery. (Fig. 3) The earlier inscription is a dedication to Isis the greatest nurse goddess (trophos megiste). It was commissioned by Eirenaios son of Harpochration, the secretary of the department of the paralemptes.

Fig. 3

Fig. 3

BE15-111/015/005 (AD 49, July 24).

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18The second, later inscription accompanied a statue of the Receiver of Berenike (paralemptes Berenikes), Gaius Julius Faustinus. (Fig. 4) It was commissioned by the secretary of the spice magazine (apotheke aromatike), Gaius Julius Eucharistos, a possible freedman whose act of dedicating a monument to the paralemptes gives good indication of the importance and high standing of the Receivers in the eyes of those who relied on them, such as their secretaries.

Fig. 4

Fig. 4

BE15 -111/021/002 (AD 112, July 25).

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19We knew from the so-called Muziris papyrus (SB 18.13167 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​sb;18;13167) of a public storage facility at Coptos, where taxes on imported goods were presumably paid. Reference to a spice magazine at Berenike shows that storage facilities existed at the harbor, too. There, the pepper, myrrh, frankincense, nard, malabathron, and other spices and aromatics coming from the East were probably first assessed and then sealed before delivery to Coptos and, from there, to Alexandria. A small proportion of the imports might have been taxed and unloaded for consumption at Berenike and other places in the Eastern Desert.

20In addition to shedding some light on customs administration, the first inscription provides insight into local religious practice. Of all the deities attested in Greek inscriptions, Zeus and Isis are the most common, each the recipient of three dedications. We saw the prominence of the goddess Isis at Coptos in our examination of Parthenios son of Paminis, the merchant and prostates of Isis. By calling her Isis trophos, the dedication found in 2015 gives us the first explicit textual evidence for her very common iconographical representation as the nurse of her son Harpocrates-Horos. The earliest stele to mention Parthenios son of Paminis (I.Pan 78 = http://inscriptions.packhum.org/​text/​219394?&bookid=372&location=9), the dedication of a peribolos to Isis, Harpocrates, and Pan set up by Paminis in the year 21/22, shows us Isis in precisely this guise. (Fig. 5)

Fig. 5

Fig. 5

I.Pan 78a (AD 21/22).

© All rights reserved

21And there is more evidence for the cult of Isis at Berenike. Reliefs on the facade of the Great Temple featured her and Harpocrates, and Wilkinson’s papers record finding a damaged figure of Isis and Horos (Meredith 1957, p. 70). Moreover, many of the reliefs in the temple dating to the time of Tiberius are said to have featured Isis, which prompted G. Höbl to state, “Es spricht viel dafür, daß Isis als Schutz- und Heilgöttin für die Reisenden in dem ägyptischen Heiligtum julisch-claudischer Zeit die weibliche Hauptgottheit war; neben ihr standen Osiris und Harpokrates” (Ηölbl 2005: 20). Finally, a private letter preserved on papyrus discovered in 2011 mentions a sanctuary of Isis, although it is unclear if the sanctuary was located in Berenike (P.Pintaudi 53 = O.Berenike 3.270.20 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​p.pintaudi;;53). The papyrus is said to have been found near a wooden stylus and a cat mummy. Given the association of Isis with cats, the mention of cats alongside a large quantity of roses in an ostracon found in 2000 (O.Berenike 2.195 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;2;195) could also reflect activity within her cult.

22In addition to texts featuring Isis, two water receipts edited in O.Berenike 3 refer to deities: one (3.282 = P.Poethke 2 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​p.poethke;;2; cf. also 3.443 = P.Poethke 4 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​p.poethke;;4) alludes to a mysterious sanctuary called the endelechisterion of the supreme god Kronos (Egyptian Geb and father of Isis), and the other (3.318 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;3;318) mentions the goddess Berenike, presumably the deified Berenike I. The texts are brief and not primarily concerned with the deities they refer to, so we do not learn anything more than the possible existence of their cults.

23With these water receipts we arrive at the final stop on our camel-driving tour, the water-supply archive discovered in 2009, which is published in O.Berenike 3. It consists of around 175 ostraca, mostly Greek, but four Latin and ten bilingual Greek-Latin texts. The ostraca document camel transport of water to Berenike under the supervision of the Roman army. More than anything, they give us the identities of cameldrivers and their caravan leaders, as well as names of military units, especially companies, and individual infantry and cavalrymen. What they do not offer, unfortunately, are specifics about the cisterns and wells from which the water came, the distances traveled, and the date and circumstances of delivery –whether, for instance, the archive reflects routine operations or an extraordinary event.

24For the most part, the water receipts contain a standard set of elements, the ordering of which can vary: we get the name of the dekanos to whose dekania the cameldriver belonged; the name and patronymic of the cameldriver; the military unit receiving the delivery; the name of the soldier who signed off on the transport; the amount of water delivered, which is measured in Greek keramia (sometimes ptolemaica keramia) and Latin amphorae. O.Berenike 3.351 (http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;3;351) is a representative example. The cameldriver’s name is Peteminis son of Herakles, a member of the dekania led by Pakoibis son of Kleitos. The recipient of the shipment of 15 keramia is Ableros, a cavalryman in the turma of the decurion Aprianos, from the regiment of the ala Apriana. (Fig. 6)

Fig. 6

Fig. 6

O.Berenike 3.351.

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25In total, the water archive yields names of 24 dekanoi and dozens of cameldrivers, including a woman, Tapiomis (see introduction to O.Berenike 3). Most of the soldiers and squadron leaders named are not associated with a particular regiment, but we know of the presence of three auxiliary units at the harbor, the 2nd and 3rd Ituraean cohorts and the ala Apriana (for more on the military in the water archive, see the intro. to the volume). The second Ituraean cohort was stationed in Egypt over a fairly long period, from as early as AD 39 down to the time of the compilation of the Notitia Dignitatum at the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century, in which the cohort is said to be based at Aiy (also known as Alyi), in the Heracleopolite nome (Not.Dig. 28; Worp 1991, p. 295; Verreth 2013, p. 52).

26The third Ituraean cohort is less well attested. Although it is mentioned in a diploma from Egypt dated to AD 83 (CIL XVI 29; June 9 = http://inscriptions.packhum.org/​text/​219886?&bookid=375&location=9), it does not figure in the Notitia Dignitatum. Its earliest mention seems to be in an agreement or receipt from the 3rd quarter of the first century (O.Berenike 3.264 = http://papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;3;264), which involves troops from both Ituraean cohorts. Most other documents that attest it date to the second century, a few to the third. On the whole, the evidence shows the cohort in Egypt for at least the first two and half centuries of this era.

27The third regiment found in Berenike, the ala Apriana, is a cavalry unit said to have been stationed at Hipponos in middle Egypt (Notitia Dignitatum 28). It appears in documents from elsewhere in the Eastern Desert and from Coptos, but the water archive connects it for the first time with Berenike. Its known presence in Egypt spans ca. AD 40 (P.Lips. 2.133.4f. = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​p.lips;2;133) to ca. 270 (SPP 20.71.2 = http://www.papyri.info/​ddbdp/​stud.pal;20;71).

28All told, the archive names around 15 squadron commanders, or decurions, and nearly 25 cavalrymen, plus 19 centuries and about 50 soldiers (Fig. 7). Many of the centuries presumably belonged to other cohorts besides the two Ituraean, even legionary ones, but we do not get the names of these regiments. A few of the soldiers and commanding officers also appear in texts from Didymoi, illustrating mobility among the troops of the Eastern Desert.

Fig. 7

Fig. 7

List of Regiments, Companies and Soldiers.

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29Although we cannot know exactly what the soldiers were up to, their remit probably included oversight of building programs, such as fortlets and wells and cisterns, in addition to providing security. The drilling of a well and the construction of a cistern and fort at Sikait in the year 76/77 were commemorated with a Latin inscription (O.Berenike 2.120 = http://edh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de/​edh/​inschrift/​HD047182), and copies of similar commemorative texts have been found at water stations in Didymoi and Aphrodites (Bagnall, Cuvigny, Bülow-Jacobsen 2001). Soldiers oversaw hydrological projects, as we know from ILS 2483 (http://inscriptions.packhum.org/​text/​219876?&bookid=375&location=9), a list of the units involved in the construction of cisterns at Berenike, Compasi, Apollonos Hydreuma, and Myos Hormos (Cuvigny 2003, pp. 267–273). We could imagine that the water archive was related to such building activities in the area; coincidentally, the archive is broadly contemporaneous with the Sikait dedication.

30Whether construction of the fortlet and cistern at Sikait (and elsewhere) was undertaken in order to counter increased security threats in the desert is impossible to say (see Bagnall, Bülow-Jacobsen, Cuvigny 2001, p. 331). There is no evidence for disturbances in first century texts from Berenike. In fact, the best witness we have to encounters with area barbarians is a papyrus, found in the Roman dump, that records the distribution of provisions to several barbarians, who have names such as Aeiamibtok and Chotiate (or Choniate), and to their unnamed wives (O.Berenike 3.266 = http://papyri.info/​ddbdp/​o.berenike;3;266). The document suggests, if anything, relative harmony, although it is admittedly difficult to draw conclusions from it, given its fragmentary state.

31This is about as far as our cameldrivers will take us. In concluding, I wish to look at one more aspect of the written evidence that has not been addressed thus far: signs of literary interest at Berenike. In 2012 the Berenike team made the exciting discovery in the early Roman dump of a fragment of Greek poetry (Ast, Lougovaya 2015). The papyrus is the most extensive example of a literary text to be found at the site thus far; the other bits of literature that have turned up have been too poorly preserved to reveal their contents.

32The two-columned fragment concerns an attendant of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, also known as magna mater (Fig. 8). The attendant may be Attis or one of the cult priests, who were called galli. He (or she) is depicted in the papyrus in a frenzied state, tossing the hair around and clashing cymbals to the accompaniment of the Phrygian flute. The genre of the poem is unclear. It is reminiscent of a comedy of Menander entitled the Theophoroumene, or “the girl possessed by a god,” but could also come from tragedy, or even a collection of songs or lyric poems. If the verses are from a collection of songs, they might have been of an occasional type, such as those performed at a local festival or for a song competition. Whatever its genre, the poem gives some flavor of cultural interests in the Eastern Desert, suggesting that it was not all commerce and no rest. Who knows, perhaps even our cameldrivers took an occasional break from transporting goods to enjoy some of the entertainment.

Fig. 8

Fig. 8

Cybele Papyrus.

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Bibliography

  

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List of illustrations

Title Fig. 1a
Caption O.Berenike 1.84 (inv. 19047).
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Title Fig. 1b
Caption O.Berenike 2.187 (inv. 48012).
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Title Fig. 2
Caption O.Berenike 1.39 (inv. 19028).
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Title Fig. 3
Caption BE15-111/015/005 (AD 49, July 24).
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Title Fig. 4
Caption BE15 -111/021/002 (AD 112, July 25).
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Title Fig. 5
Caption I.Pan 78a (AD 21/22).
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Title Fig. 6
Caption O.Berenike 3.351.
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Title Fig. 7
Caption List of Regiments, Companies and Soldiers.
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File image/jpeg, 328k
Title Fig. 8
Caption Cybele Papyrus.
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File image/jpeg, 819k

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