num_pages: 456
description: The legendary overland silk road was not the only way to reach Asia for ancient travelers from the Mediterranean. During the Roman Empires heyday equally important maritime routes reached from the Egyptian Red Sea across the Indian Ocean. The ancient city of Berenike located approximately 500 miles south of todays Suez Canal was a significant port among these conduits. In this book Steven E. Sidebotham the archaeologist who excavated Berenike uncovers the role the city played in the regional local and global economies during the eight centuries of its existence. Sidebotham analyzes many of the artifacts botanical and faunal remains and hundreds of the texts he and his team found in excavations providing a profoundly intimate glimpse of the people who lived worked and died in this emporium between the classical Mediterranean world and Asia.
language: English
title: Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route
publisher: University of California Press