The late Roman harbor temple of Berenike. Results of the 2010 season of excavations

Excavations in 2010 in the southwestern harbor at Berenike documented two distinct structures. One built of white gypsum/anhydrite ashlars was the earlier of the two. The later one, with walls composed mainly of extinct coral heads, but incorporating portions of the earlier ashlar structure, lay immediately southeast of the former. The later edifice, and the focus of this article, dated to the 4th and 5th centuries AD and clearly had a religious function. Excavations documented two major phases of this shrine and suggested that multiple creeds were venerated here, including one perhaps of South Arabian origin. Along with numerous cult objects made of metal, stone, terracotta, ostrich eggs and cowry shells there was ample floral and faunal evidence for offerings made or consumed by devotees.Iwona Zyc

The “Square Feature” in the harbor: Excavations in Berenike 2010–2011

The Berenike Project team explored, as one of a number of objectives, a square feature situated on an island or promontory in the southwestern harbor bay of the Berenike port, directly to the northwest of the “Lotus Temple”. The report is a preliminary assessment of the results of excavations carried out in 2010 and 2011, which uncovered the inside of the structure as well as a continuous surface of melted gypsum anhydrite around it that was proved to be at least in part a tumble of large wall ashlars. A provisional dating of the remains suggests an early Roman origin for the structure, which may have been a sanctuary. The findings indicate that it was already abandoned in the 4th–5th centuries when the neighboring “Lotus Temple”, uncovered concurrently by the Polish–American team, was at its peak. Finds included an inscribed altar dedicated to Domitian(?), discovered among the tumble of a stone basin and unidentified installation, and some remains of bronze statuary, oil lamps, glass beads and other finds.Iwona Zyc

From Berenike to Koptos : recent results of the desert route Survey

Sidebotham Steven E. From Berenike to Koptos : recent results of the desert route Survey. In: Topoi. Orient-Occident. Supplément 3, 2002. Autour de Coptos

An Overview of Archaeological Work in the Eastern Desert and along the Red Sea Coast of Egypt by the University of Delaware-Leiden University 1987-1995

Sidebotham Steven E. An Overview of Archaeological Work in the Eastern Desert and along the Red Sea Coast of Egypt by the University of Delaware-Leiden University 1987-1995. In: Topoi, volume 6/2, 1996. pp. 773-783

Romans and Arabs in the Red Sea

Sidebotham Steven E. Romans and Arabs in the Red Sea. In: Topoi, volume 6/2, 1996. pp. 785-797

Overview of Fieldwork at Berenike 1994-2015

Fifteen seasons of survey and excavation (1994-2001 and 2009-2015) and one week of survey alone (2008) at Berenike (Fig. 1) have documented abundant evidence about this Egyptian Red Sea emporium that functioned for about 800 years. Founded by Ptolemy II Philadelphus before the mid-third BC Berenike, located about 825 km south southeast of Suez and ca. 260 km east of Aswan, operated until its final peaceful abandonment sometime prior to the middle of the sixth century AD. Recent documentation ..

From Berenike to Koptos : recent results of the desert route Survey

Sidebotham Steven E. From Berenike to Koptos : recent results of the desert route Survey. In: Topoi. Orient-Occident. Supplément 3, 2002. Autour de Coptos

Results of Fieldwork at Berenike: A Ptolemaic-Roman Port on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt, 2008-2010

Sidebotham Steven E., Zych Iwona. Results of Fieldwork at Berenike: A Ptolemaic-Roman Port on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt, 2008-2010. In: Topoi. Orient-Occident. Supplément 11, 2012. Autour du Périple de la mer Érythrée

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

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