Berenike Project. Hellenistic fort, Roman harbor, late Roman temple, and other fieldwork: archaeological work in the 2012 and 2013 seasons

Abstract

Brief overview of two seasons of archaeological survey and excavation carried out in 2012 and 2013 at the site of Berenike on the Red Sea coast and in two sub-projects in the Eastern Desert: the prehistoric cattle cemetery at Wadi Khashab and the Roman-era emerald mines at Sikait and Nugrus. Highpoints of the work at Berenike included discovery of the Hellenistic fort and fortifications that mark the original settlement of the site in the third quarter of the 3rd century BC, continued clearance of harbor-related structures in the southwestern bay interpreted as the early Roman harbor of Berenike and the uncovering of an earlier phase of the late Roman harbor temple (so-called Lotus Temple) of the 5th–6th century AD in the harbor.

Archaeological fieldwork in Berenike in 2014 and 2015: from Hellenistic rock-cut installations to abandoned temple ruins

“…The blurred image seen on the magnetic map is due to disturbances in the near-surface layers caused by the government bulldozing of the site in the 1970s in preparation for army construction. It shows the extent of the Following the successful identification of the only significant Ptolemaic urban defenses known from Egypt (Sidebotham and Zych 2012a: 31-32;Sidebotham et al 2015;Woźniak and Rądkowska 2014), trench BE14-97 (extended in the following year by trench BE15-104, see Fig. 1) was positioned directly next to an old trench (BE95-11), which had revealed remains previously interpreted as being of an industrial nature (brick kiln), dated by material from the Ptolemaic period (Sidebotham 1998: 101-108).…”

“…Pre-temple levels were reached inside the late temple, excavated since the 2010 season (Sidebotham and Zych 2010: 15-19;Sidebotham 2011: 266-267;Sidebotham and Zych 2012a: 33-36;2012b: 141-147;Rądkowska, Sidebotham, and Zych 2013;Sidebotham 2014: 602-609;Sidebotham et al 2015).…”