They discover a sanctuary where rituals were performed different from those of all other Egyptian temples

The most recent results of the excavation campaigns at the archaeological site of Berenike, a Greco-Roman port in the Arabian desert in Egypt, have been made public. The discoveries include a religious complex dating from between the 4th and 6th centuries, and unpublished finds linked to the presence of the nomadic Blemy people.

The research has been carried out by the Sikait Project team, led by Professor Joan Oller Guzmán, from the Department of Antiquity and Middle Ages Sciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), with funding from the PALARQ Foundation and thanks to the permits granted by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.

The religious complex, named the Falcon Shrine by researchers and located within the Northern Complex, was one of the most important buildings in the city of Berenike during this period.

The site, which has been excavated by the Polish Center for Mediterranean Archeology and the University of Delaware in the United States, corresponds to a Red Sea port founded in Ptolemaic times (3rd century BC) and continued in Roman and Byzantine times. , when it became the main entry point for trade from the Horn of Africa, Arabia and India. Within this chronological framework, one of the phases that has contributed most recently would be the latest, between the 4th and 6th centuries, a time when, apparently, the city was partially occupied and controlled by the blemmies, a group nomadic population of Nubian origin that at that time extended its domain over much of the Egyptian Arabian desert. In this context, the Northern Complex is fundamental because it has offered clear evidence of a link with the blemmies, with the discovery of inscriptions dedicated to some of their kings or the aforementioned Falcon Shrine.

The excavations have made it possible to identify a small temple of Egyptian tradition, which from the 4th century was adapted by the Blemian population to their own belief system. “The material findings are especially remarkable, with the presence of offerings such as harpoons, a cubical statue or a stele with indications about the cult activities, which has been chosen as the cover of the magazine number,” highlights the UAB researcher Joan Oller.

The most remarkable votive aspect would be the deposition of up to 15 falcons inside the sanctuary, most of them headless. Although falcons buried for religious purposes have already been observed in the Nile Valley before, as well as cults of individual specimens of these birds, this is the first time that falcons have been observed buried inside a temple, and also accompanied by eggs, also an unprecedented find. Mummies of decapitated falcons have also been found at other sites, but always isolated individuals, never in a group, as is the case at Berenike. The stele bears the curious inscription “It is improper to boil a head in this place” which, far from being a dedication or a thank you as was usual in inscriptions of the time, prohibits boiling the heads of animals inside the temple, a activity considered profane.

The research team. From left to right: Delia Eguiluz Maestro, Juan Oller Guzmán, David Fernández Abella and Vanesa Trevín Pita. (Photo: The Berenike Project / Sikait Project)

For Joan Oller, “all these elements would point to an intense ritual activity that would combine aspects of Egyptian tradition, together with Blemian contributions, on a theological basis possibly related to the cult of the god Khonsu”. The UAB researcher concludes that “the findings broaden our knowledge of this semi-nomadic population, the blemmies, within the Egyptian Arabian desert at the end of the Roman Empire.”

The study is titled “A Falcon Shrine at the Port of Berenike (Red Sea Coast, Egypt). And it has been published in the academic journal American Journal of Archaeology. (Source: UAB. CC BY-NC 4.0)