Ancient Egypt's Relations with Other States

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Daniel Weiss wrote in Archaeology magazine: In its 3,000-year history as a state, ancient Egypt had a complicated, constantly changing set of relations with neighboring powers. With the Libyans to the west and the Babylonians, Hittites, Assyrians, and Persians to the northeast, Egypt by turns waged war, forged treaties, and engaged in mutually beneficial trade. But Egypt’s most important and enduring relationship was, arguably, with its neighbor to the south, Nubia. See Below

During the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt (1539 to 1075 B.C.), the Egyptian empire extended southward to the land of Punt (Somalia) and the 5th Cataract near present-day Khartoum, Sudan, and eastward across the Middle East past Palestine and Syria to the Euphrates River of Mesopotamia. The powerful Hittites and Mitanni in the north at various times were both enemies and allies. Assyria and Babylon sent tributes.

The New Kingdom was a period of Egyptian expansion and imperialism. According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica: In the earlier periods Egypt's contact with, and control over, foreign areas was limited to her desire for trade and resources; during the New Kingdom Egypt's foreign policy became more aggressive. The Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni became a threat to Egypt, and the New Kingdom rulers responded to Mitanni's rising power in the area. [Source:Encyclopaedia Judaica, Thomson Gale, 2007]

The 18th Dynasty ruler Thutmose I led a campaign into northern Syria. Later, Thutmose III led 14 campaigns into Western Asia (one of which included a seven-month siege at Megiddo), and eventually subdued the Levantine coast, increasing Egyptian hegemony into the interior of Syro-Palestine. Under Thutmose III the rulers of the conquered Asiatic city-states became vassals to Egypt who had to send tribute and swear an oath of loyalty to the Pharaoh. True peace was not realized until the reign of Thutmose IV, who married one of the Mitannian princesses. “The Egyptian Empire reached its height during the reign of another 18th Dynasty Pharaoh, Amenhotep III. By this time the empire was firmly established, so that Egypt was able to keep her troops in just a few areas and to send garrisons only to regions that threatened revolt. But this relative ease of imperialism was short lived, and the Empire began to falter under the reign of Amenhotep IV.

Egypt and Mesopotamia

The civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia existed pretty much at the same time. Sumer in Mesopotamia is often credited with being the oldest civilization in the world because it came up with a writing system first. Although the two empires were only about 600 miles apart they developed as empires pretty much on their own. This is partly explained by the fact that there was a big desert between them. [Source: H.W. Janson,, "History of Art” Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.]

For much of its early history Mesopotamia was occupied by rival kingdoms. Few of them were able to exert much influence beyond the borders of their realm. Sumer were not a unified kingdom.. Rather it was like ancient Greece, a composite of often feuding city-states. Babylon was a kingdom that did not control a very large area and did not rule terribly long. With the exception of the brief and unstable Akkadian empire around 2300 B.C. there was no kingdom that ruled over what would qualify as an empire until the Assyrians arrived on the scene in the 9th century B.C.

Another difference between the two cultures is that, at a given time, Egypt flourished under the leadership of one ruler and was relatively peaceful while Mesopotamia was often divided into several kingdoms and city-states and was racked by wars. This too is partly explained by geography. Mesopotamian kingdoms were spread out between two rivers and its many tributaries, and could be easily attacked from any direction, while ancient Egypt was located primarily within one river valley and was removed from the outside world by deserts. Attacks usually only came from the northeast — and to a lesser extent in the south — which meant defenses could be concentrated there. The fact that Mesopotamia was composed of many different kingdoms and city-states that rose, dominated, declined and battled each other also explains why it was never produced a single unified tradition of culture like Egypt.

Hittites and Egyptians

The Hittites founded a kingdom in Anatolia (Turkey) in the 18th century B.C., Their capital was Hattusas (Boğazköy). They controlled a powerful empire in the 15th–13th centuries B.C. and expanded east and south in the 15th century B.C. and conquered n Syria before being checked by the Egyptians. The first Hittite kingdoms, archaeologists believe, formed in central Anatolia in about 2100 B.C. The Hittites appear in the Hebrew Bible, and ancient Egyptian inscriptions record that the Hittite Empire battled the Pharaoh Ramses II in 1274 B.C. at the Battle of Kadesh — an ancient city near modern-day Homs, Syria — in one of history's earliest battles. Under attack from Assyria, the Hittite Empire disintegrated in c.1200 B.C. [Source: Live Science]

Under the Pharaoh Akhenate, who ruled for 17 years from 1353 B.C. to his death in 1336 B.C., the Egyptian kingdom was neglected and Egypt's arch enemies the Hittites began encroaching from the east. In the middle of tense period with the Hittites, when Egypt’s possessions in Syria were being threatened, Akhenaten died. A Hittite text described an Egyptian attack on Kadesh in present-day Syria during Tutankhamun’s (King Tut’s) rule (1334 to 1325 B.C.).

After Tutankhamun’s death there was a vacuum of power and major crisis to fill it. Tutankhamun’s wife Anhesanamun launched a coup and pleaded for help from the Hittites. “My husband is dead,” she wrote them. “Send me your son and I will make him king.” The Hittite prince Zannanza was sent to marry her but he was killed — presumably by an assassin — as he entered Egyptian territory.

Lybians, North Africa and Egypt’s Western Desert

Benjamin Leonard wrote in Archaeology magazine: From the beginning of their recorded history, around 3000 B.C., the Egyptians considered the Western Desert a foreign region, set apart from the Nile Valley and Delta that comprised Upper and Lower Egypt. Old Kingdom inscriptions refer to two different groups living in this vast area. The Tjehenu, who are mentioned in the earliest of these inscriptions, were adversaries against whom the Egyptians waged several battles. Appearing some time later were the Tjemehu, a nomadic or seminomadic people who roamed the Western Desert. [Source Benjamin Leonard, Archaeology magazine, March-April 2020]

No conclusive archaeological evidence for either group has been found. Excavations at Mut have yielded some evidence of an indigenous group scholars call the Sheikh Muftah culture living in the oasis before 2600 B.C., but it is unclear what happened to these people or whether they were related to either of the groups mentioned in the Egyptian texts. As a result of their history of conflict with the Tjehenu and other groups beyond their western borders, the Egyptians considered the oases strategically important. Following a series of exploratory missions, Egypt conquered the region by 2500 B.C., bringing Dakhleh and the other oases under its control. Archaeologist Colin Hope of Monash University told Archaeology magazine: “My opinion is that the Egyptian state was such an aggressive organization that the people of the Western Desert just succumbed to it. ”

The Berbers are one earliest recognized groups of people in North Africa. Inscriptions found in Egypt dating from the Old Kingdom (ca. 2700-2200 B.C.) are the earliest known recorded testimony of the Berber migration and also the earliest written documentation of Libyan history. At least as early as this period, troublesome Berber tribes, one of which was identified in Egyptian records as the Levu (or "Libyans"), were raiding eastward as far as the Nile Delta and attempting to settle there. During the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2200-1700 B.C.) the Egyptian pharaohs succeeded in imposing their overlordship on these eastern Berbers and extracted tribute from them. [Source Library of Congress]

The oldest known documented references to the Libu — the ancient Lybians — date to Ramesses II and his successor Merneptah, pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, during the 13th century B.C.. LBW appears as an ethnic name on the Merneptah Stele to designate Libyans. Many Berbers and Libyans served in the army of the pharaohs, and some rose to positions of importance in the Egyptian state. One such Libyan officer seized control of Egypt in about 950 B.C. and, as Shishonk I, ruled as pharaoh. His successors of the 22nd and 23rd dynasties — the so-called Libyan dynasties (ca. 945-730 B.C.) — are also believed to have been Berbers.

Minoan-Egyptian Relations

The Minoan civilization (c. 3000 – 1400 B.C.) of Crete existed at the same time as the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Stefan Pfeiffer of Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg wrote: “Occupying the island of Crete, the Minoans were skilled sailors who had established hegemony in the Aegean; it was therefore natural that they made contact with neighboring civilizations. With Egypt they established mainly economic relations as far as can be judged by archaeological evidence. First contacts between Crete and Egypt are attested by a fragment of a 1st or 2nd Dynasty Egyptian obsidian vase found in Crete in an EM-II-A stratum, testifying to (indirect?) trading contacts since earliest historical times. [Source: Stefan Pfeiffer, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 2013 escholarship.org ]

“There were three possible routes by which the Minoans (or their trade goods) could have traveled to Egypt. First, there was the direct passage over 350 miles of open sea, which does not seem very likely. The second option was to sail within sight of the shore along the Levantine coast (and probably trade with the settlements there) to (later) Pelusium. The third, and most likely, passage was to cross the Mediterranean to (later) Cyrene and then sail along the coast to Egypt. The Minoans valued gold, alabaster, ivory, semiprecious stones, and ostrich eggs, but Egyptian stone vessels and scarabs were also found in Crete. Some scholars maintain that Egyptian craftsmen were present on the island, based upon a statuette (14 centimeters high) of an Egyptian goldsmith called User that was found at Knossos; this single example, however, should not be considered as evidence for the migration of Egyptian craftsmen. In addition to these items of Egyptian origin, a certain adaptation of Egyptian styles in Minoan art is apparent. The Minoan artisans used some Egyptian elements eclectically, adjusting or adapting their meaning to new contexts.

“Conversely, Egypt imported Minoan pottery, metal vessels, and jewelry, and probably also wine, olive oil, cosmetics, and timber, as the archaeological record proves. We know that the first Minoan artifacts found in Egypt do not date prior to the time of Amenemhat II (1928 – 1893 B.C.), because from his times Middle-Minoan pottery (so-called Kamares ware) is attested. All in all, Minoan culture had at least some influence in Egypt, as can be judged from Egyptian copies of Kamares ware. Even Minoan textiles seem to have been appreciated by the Egyptian elite, as Aegean textile patterns were copied on the walls of tombs from the reigns of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III.

“The pinnacle of Minoan-Egyptian relations can be dated to the beginning of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty. Having already established good relations with the Hyksos, the Minoans stayed in close contact with a number of Egyptian pharaohs as well, as is proven by Minoan frescoes found in two palaces at Tell el- Dabaa/Avaris in the Nile delta. It was at first assumed that these royal houses were decorated during the rule of the Hyksos kings, but this view has been revised. It is now clear from the stratigraphical evidence that the palaces date to the Thutmosid era. Contemporary with this evidence from Lower Egypt are scenes in seven Theban tombs of 18th- Dynasty high court officials that show Minoan legates from “Keftiu “(as Crete is called in Egyptian texts) bearing tribute. According to some scholars, these scenes bear witness to reciprocity of political contacts rather than formal tribute to a dominant partner. Thus the Minoan frescoes in the Lower Egypt and the pictorial evidence in tombs of almost the same period in Upper Egypt underscore rich cultural, economic, and eventually even political, contacts between Egypt and the Minoan civilization during the 18th Dynasty, just before the time of Akhenaten. This is corroborated by the fact that some Egyptian scribes seem to have known the Minoan language .”

Mycenaean-Egyptian Relations

There is a wealth of Egyptian artifacts discovered at sites in Mycenae that offer proof of the Greeks' connections to Egypt. Eric A. Powell wrote in Archaeology magazine: A number of cartouches bearing the names of pharaohs such as Amenhotep III (reigned ca. 1390-1352 B.C.) have been found at Mycenae, and exotic Egyptian goods including faience figures have been unearthed at other Mycenaean sites. It seems the Egyptians were quite familiar with the lands of the Bronze Age Aegean, which they knew as Tanaja. Column bases in Amenhotep III's mortuary temple in Thebes are inscribed with extensive lists of foreign lands, including a possible travel itinerary whose place-names scholars believe are those of Mycenaean centers. Mycenaean pottery and other objects have been found at Pi-Ramses, the capital built by Ramses II. [Source: Eric A. Powell, Archaeology magazine, September-October 2023]

Stefan Pfeiffer of Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg wrote: “After the collapse of the Minoan culture, the Mycenaeans—who, like the Minoans, were located in “islands in the midst of the Great Green,” as the Egyptians called the Aegean—filled the economic gap left by Minoan traders. The earliest Egyptian attestation of the Mycenaeans dates to the 42nd year of Thutmose III’s reign. The transition from the Minoan to the Mycenaean culture may be reflected in Theban Tomb 100 (of the high official Rekhmira, who served at the end of Thutmose III’s reign and into that of Amenhotep II), in which an Aegean tribute carrier is depicted. The wall painting is a palimpsest: Originally, the depicted person was dressed in a typical Minoan loin-cloth; later on, this garment was modified to a multicolored kilt, which is generally attributed to Mycenaean origins. However, it is noteworthy that the interpretation of both garments as Minoan or Mycenaean, respectively, is nowadays questioned. [Source: Stefan Pfeiffer, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 2013 escholarship.org ]

There were intense contacts in the time of Akhenaten, as is attested by Mycenaean pottery sherds dating to his reign. Mycenaean pottery is also found in post-Amarna times (for example, at Pi-Ramesse, the capital city built by Ramesses II): like their forefathers, Egyptian potters tried to copy the form and style of Minoan pottery, now aimed to imitate Mycenaean ware, even in faience or calcite (Egyptian alabaster).

“The view that post-Amarna contacts between the two worlds were mainly based on indirect trade relations via the Levant is nowadays being questioned; there are in fact hints to an exchange of individuals and ideas. What can be said is that the Mycenaeans, like the Minoans, were highly interested in Egyptian goods. Especially in Mycenae itself, many Egyptian objects bear witness to close trade relations. Moreover, Mycenae seems to have served as a “gateway community” for the import of Egyptian goods to the whole Aegean world.

Temple Dedicated to Zeus Unearthed in Egypt

In April 2022, archaeologists in Egypt said they had excavated the remains of an ancient temple built to honor Zeus-Kasios, a deity sporting the features of both the Greek god Zeus and the ancient Egyptian weather-god Kasios, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said. Live Science reported: The ruins were unearthed at the Tell el-Farama archaeological site on the northwestern Sinai Peninsula. In Greco-Roman times (332 B.C. to A.D. 395), this area was known as the city and harbor of Pelusium, which sat on the far eastern mouth of the Nile River. Due to its strategic location, people used Pelusium for various functions, including as a fortress during the time of the Egyptian pharaohs; and artifacts dating to the Greco-Roman, Byzantine, Christian and Islamic periods suggest it was in use in various ways then as well, according to a 2010 paper presented at a the Sinai International Conference for Geology and Development. [Source: Laura Geggel, Live Science, April 27, 2022

The archaeological team zeroed in on the temple after excavating around the remains of two pink granite columns lying on the ground's surface, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in the statement. These columns once formed the temple's front gate, but collapsed in ancient times when a mighty earthquake rocked the city.

Researchers have been aware for several decades that there might be a Zeus-Kasios temple at the site. In the early 1900s and later in the 1990s, archaeologists ascertained that the granite columns were likely brought on barges via the Nile from Aswan in southern Egypt to Pelusium, according to the 2010 paper. Moreover, the late French Egyptologist Jean Clédat found Greek inscriptions at the site, indicating that a temple for Zeus-Kasios had been built there in Greco-Roman times. However, archaeologists never did a formal excavation at the site, which is near an ancient fort and a church.

Now, archaeologists have discovered previously unknown remains of the temple, including granite blocks that were likely part of a staircase leading to the temple's entrance on the eastern side of the building, Ayman Ashmawy, head of the Egyptian Antiquities sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in the statement.

Ancient Egypt and Palestine

Susan Cohen of Montana State University wrote: “Egyptian interactions and contact with Palestine began as early as the fourth millennium BCE, and continued, in varying forms and at times far more intensively than others, until the conquest of the ancient world by Alexander the Great. Numerous data—textual, material, archaeological—found in both Egyptian and southern Levantine contexts illustrate the diverse spectrum of interaction and contact between the two regions, which ranged from colonialism, to imperial expansion, to diplomatic relations, to commerce. By virtue of geographic proximity, economic interests, and occasionally political necessity, the respective histories of the two regions remained irreducibly interconnected. In all periods, situations and events in Egypt influenced growth and development in the southern Levant, while at times different societies and political considerations in Palestine also affected Egyptian culture. [Source: Susan Cohen, Montana State University, 2016, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 2013 escholarship.org ]

“Egyptian texts thus often remains uncertain; this imprecision has ramifications for understanding the relationship between Egypt and Palestine, a problem which is then further compounded by difficulties in establishing clear chronological synchronisms between the two regions, particularly in the earlier eras. In general, synchronisms between the Egyptian Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods and the Palestinian Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I are fairly well established. However, recent 14C analyses have resulted in significant changes in the chronological synchronisms between Old Kingdom Egypt and the Palestinian Early Bronze Age. These new data clearly indicate that, rather than being coterminous with the Palestinian Early Bronze Age III, much of the Old Kingdom was contemporary with the relatively deurbanized period of the Intermediate Bronze Age, which clearly has significant repercussions for under-standing Egyptian-Palest inian interactions in the third millennium.

“Likewise, the chronological synchronisms for the first half of the second millennium are in flux. Recent studies suggest that the earliest rulers of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom were contemporary with the Palesti nian Intermediate Bronze Age, whereas the Middle Bronze Age proper corresponds to the mature Middle Kingdom (starting with the reign of Amenemhat II) and later. Finally, recent C14 analyses also indicate that the absolute dates for the transition to the Palestinian Late Bronze Age must be raised by almost a century from those in conventional usage, thereby affecting understandings of the relationship betw een New Kingdom Egypt and the southern Levant in the Late Bronze Age.

Nubia and Ancient Egypt

Daniel Weiss wrote in Archaeology magazine: Egypt’s most important and enduring relationship was, arguably, with its neighbor to the south, Nubia. The two cultures were connected by the Nile River, whose annual flooding made civilization possible in an otherwise harsh desert environment. Through their shared history, Egyptians and Nubians also came to worship the same chief god, Amun, who was closely allied with kingship and played an important role as the two civilizations vied for supremacy. During its Middle and New Kingdoms, which spanned the second millennium B.C., Egypt pushed its way into Nubia, ultimately conquering and making it a colonial province. The Egyptians were drawn by the land’s rich store of natural resources, including ebony, ivory, animal skins, and, most importantly, gold. [Source:Daniel Weiss, Archaeology magazine, May-June 2015]

Nubia was a major source of gold, labor and exotic materials for ancient Egypt. The Egyptians were using gold as early as 2000 B.C. The Egyptian often referred to the Nubians as "vile," "miserable" and "wretched." Pharaohs made images of Nubians on their foot stool so they could crush them with their sandals. Fortresses were built to hold off the Nubians. The Egyptians built garrisons along the Nile and installed Nubia chiefs as administrator. The children of favored Nubians were educated in Thebes.

Nubians embraced Egyptian culture and arguably the first to be consumed by Egyptomania. They became highly assimilated and venerated Egyptian gods, particularly Amun, used the Egyptians language, adopted Egyptians burial styles and later even built pyramids. Timothy Kednall if Northeastern University told National Geographic, the Nubians “had become more catholic than the pope.” Today Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt.

Africa and Ancient Egypt

Among the products that came to Egypt from Africa or Nubia were precious stones, ivory, leopard and cheetah -skins, ostrich-feathers and ostrich-eggs, monkeys, panthers, giraffes, dogs, and cattle.

Tribes that lived in Africa south of Nubia were pictured in the battle scenes. They were typically represented by the Egyptian artists as barbarians, almost nude, and with long angular limbs. Later they were portrayed as more civilized. In a picture of the time of Thutmose III, most of the Africans who are bringing tribute are still dressed in short skirts of skin, two only wear Egyptian linen skirts like those formerly worn in Egypt by the peasantry. [Source: Adolph Erman, “Life in Ancient Egypt”, 1894]

A hundred years later a complete change had taken place in this respect, as we see by the representation bequeathed to us in his tomb by Huy, the governor of Ethiopia under King Tutankhamun (King Tut). It represents the solemn ceremony when Huy “came out of Ethiopia with this beautiful tribute, the choicest of all the southern countries," and brought it, together with the bearers thereof, the “great men of Ethiopia," to present to the king. There are here more than forty great men of Nubia (who like their modern descendants are partly brown and partly black); four only wear the old skin skirt of their forefathers, and even they have beautified it with a front piece of white material — all the others wear Egyptian garments, and indeed of the most fashionable kind.

Many of them have even laid aside the old coiffure, in which the hair stood off from the head on all sides like a great roof, as well as the ostrich feather, the national head-ornament; they have let their hair grow, and dressed it, as far as possible, in Egyptian fashion. A few have also given up the heavy national earrings and armlets, and replaced them by Egyptian ornaments. If we did not recognise by the color of the skin, the woolly hair, and the African features to which nationality these great men belonged, we might from their appearance almost mistake them for distinguished courtiers of the Pharaoh. One of these ladies is even driving in a carriage built exactly after the pattern of the Egypto-Syrian merkobt; yet strange to say she has substituted a team of dwarf oxen for the usual horses.

Amongst the presents that these great men are bringing, the showpieces are of particular interest; the one in our illustration represents a table covered with panther-skins and woven material; upon the table is represented an African landscape. The tall conical thatched huts, the giraffes, the dom-palms with the monkeys playing in the boughs.

Punt

Punt, a mysterious fabled land south of Egypt, supplied Egypt with myrrh, ebony, ivory, gold, spices, panther skins, live baboons and other exotic animals and frankincense. The exact location of Punt is still unknown. It may have been in modern-day Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, or Oman. Traders crossed the Eastern desert and sailed from the Red Sea to get there. Much of what is known about Punt is based on reliefs found on the wall of the Deir el Bahri temple, built around 1490 B.C. in western Thebes. The reliefs show trade between rulers of Punt and emissaries of Queen Hatshepsut.

Candida Moss wrote in the Daily Beast: When the ancient Egyptians thought of mysterious and wealthy kingdoms they spoke of “God’s Land” or the Land of Punt. Expeditions to this kingdom — which was rich in gold, ebony, ivory, and frankincense — were memorialized by the Egyptians on the walls of temples and alluded to in ancient folklore. But despite the fact that the Land of Punt was a real place and a major trading partner of Egypt’s, its precise location had been lost. Now new evidence, based on a mummified baboon skull, may help unlock the secrets of this lost civilization. [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, January 4, 2021]

The Red Sea and ancient Egypt were part of a trade network that drove maritime technology for thousands of years. Punt also formed part of this ancient spice route and was well known for exporting luxury goods, in particular high-quality incense and prized sacred monkeys. Ancient sources suggest that travelers could reach Punt by journeying south and east of Egypt, leading some to identify the kingdom with Ethiopia or the horn of Africa, but the exact location of this country is a mystery.

Early Links Between Ancient Egypt and Asia

The Silk Road was a conduit for goods such as silk and spices between Asia and Europe at least as far back as Greco-Roman times and possibly as far back as Egyptian times. Strands of silk have been found on 3000-year-old Egyptian mummies. The most likely source of silk from that period was China or India. It is not clear how it made its way to ancient Egypt.

Direct trade links between the Mediterranean lands and India had been established in the late 2nd century BC by the Hellenistic Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. Greek navigators learned to use the regular pattern of the monsoon winds for their trade voyages in the Indian Ocean. Ancient Greece was resource poor and overpopulated. It needed to trade to secure resources.

In August 2023, archaeologists announced that they had found a 2000-year-old Buddha statue in Egypt. Archaeology magazine reported: Researchers think that a grateful South Asian merchant living in the Egyptian city of Berenice may have donated a small Buddha statue to a Roman-era Isis temple. The two-foot-tall marble figurine is the first sculpture of its kind from antiquity to have ever been found west of Afghanistan. It was likely carved in Alexandria between A.D. 90 and 140 and depicts the Buddha with a halo of sun rays around his head symbolizing his radiant mind.[Source: Archaeology magazine, August 2023]

According to AFP: The was discovered in Egypt's ancient seaport of Berenice on the Red Sea, shedding light on trade ties with India under the Roman empire. A Polish-US mission discovered the statue "dating back to the Roman era while digging at the ancient temple in Berenice". The find has "important indications over the presence of trade ties between Egypt and India during the Roman era", the head of Egypt's supreme antiquities council Mostafa al-Waziri said. [Source: AFP, April 27, 2023]

The statue, with part of its right side and its right leg missing, measures 71 centimetres (28 inches) in height and portrays Buddha with a halo around his head and a lotus flower by his side. Waziri said Berenice was one of the largest seaports in Roman-era Egypt, and was often the destination for ships from India laden with spices, semi-precious stones, textiles and ivory.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated August 2024