Early Christianity in East Africa and Red Sea/Indian Ocean Commerce

The ancient East African kingdom of Aksum gradually adopted Christianity from the early- to mid-fourth-century reign of Ezana onwards. The well-known narrative of the late Roman church-historian Rufinus relates a top-down process of conversion, starting with the ruler himself. The report, corroborated by the adoption of Christian symbolism on Ezana’s late coinage, and monotheistic as well as overtly Christian references in royal inscriptions, is generally considered trustworthy. While not challenging the significance of charismatic and powerful individuals, this article argues that Christianity was present in the region before Ezana, and that the introduc- tion of Christianity should be situated within the context of early Red Sea/Indian Ocean commerce. Trade was the carrier of ideological impulses from communities in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean worlds and created the social infrastructure that expatriate believers, early converts, and later, church officials and local elites could draw upon

Ancient ports of trade on the red sea coasts -the ‘parameters of attractiveness’ of site locations and human adaptations to fluctuating land- and sea-scapes. Case study berenike troglodytica, Southeastern Egypt

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. The Red Sea region is unfavourable for long-shore nautical activity as it lacks natural topographic features that could be used as harbours; there are only a few suitable bays for landing along its coasts, where wadi mouths allow for a break in the reef. However, experiencing seasonally variable winds and currents, parts of the Red Sea constituted favourable marine environments for sea voyaging, contact and trade for millennia. This paper focuses on the influence that the local environmental and climatic context (including land- and sea-scape), had on the location, development, and ultimate success or decline of key Classical (Greco-Roman) ports of trade on the Red Sea coast, most pertinently those involved in exchange on the Spice, Incense and Maritime Silk Routes. The importance of changes in geomorphological, climatic, landscape and sea level configurations that led to the alternation of these human-adapted landscapes will be discussed within the new theoretical framework of ‘Parameters of Attractiveness’ developed whilst focusing on a case study, the Greco-Roman port town of Berenike Troglodytica on the southern Red Sea coast of Egypt. These parameters- grouped into 4 main categories: Sea, Land, Resources, and Socio-Economic and Political-were designed in order to statistically quantify the attractiveness of particular sites along the rims of the Red Sea for use as trade ports

Sci Rep

Unhealthy behaviours are linked to a higher risk of eye diseases, but their combined effect on visual function is unknown. We aimed to examine the individual and combined associations of diet, physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption with visual impairment among French adults. 38 903 participants aged 18-73 years from the CONSTANCES nationwide cohort (2012-2016) with visual acuity measured and who completed, lifestyle, medical and food frequency questionnaires were included. Visual impairment was defined as a presenting visual acuity <20/40 in the better eye. After full multivariate adjustment, the odds for visual impairment increased with decreasing diet quality (p for trend = 0.04), decreasing physical activity (p for trend = 0.02) and increasing smoking pack-years (p for trend = 0.03), whereas no statistically significant association with alcohol consumption was found. Combination of several unhealthy behaviours was associated with increasing odds for visual impairment (p for trend = 0.0002), with a fully-adjusted odds ratio of 1.81 (95% CI 1.18 to 2.79) for participants reporting 2 unhealthy behaviours and 2.92 (95% CI 1.60 to 5.32) for those reporting 3 unhealthy behaviours. An unhealthy lifestyle including low/intermediate diet quality, low physical activity and heavy smoking was associated with visual impairment in this large population-based study