Shaping a city and its defenses; fortifications of Hellenistic Berenike Trogodytika

Abstract

Key information on the location, size and dating of the Ptolemaic fortifications of Berenike Trogodytika comes from archaeological excavations carried out in 2013–2015, following the 2012 season when the presence of military architecture in the Red Sea harbor was first discovered and identified (Woźniak and Rądkowska 2014). Sections of a thick wall constructed of gypsum anhydrite blocks on a wide foundation were recorded in the northern part of the site (trenches BE-13/90 and BE13-93). The wall was part of the defenses protecting the harbor from the north, the only land access to the site through marshy ground on the fringes of the so-called “northern lagoon”. Further work in trenches BE14-97 in 2014 and BE15-104 in 2015 uncovered the remains of a well preserved early Hellenistic fortified city gate, built of gypsum anhydrite blocks and chunks of coral. The complex has no parallel at present anywhere in the Red Sea region. A series of shallow basins interconnected by pipes made of truncated necks of early Hellenistic amphorae, found to the east of the gate, served probably to collect rainwater. The water function? of the gate was confirmed further by a large basin or cistern, about 1 m deep, abutting the complex on the southwest. A subterranean network of four rock-cut chambers(?) was discovered at the bottom of the internal gate chamber. A corridor in the east wall of the gate shaft, with a covered channel in the floor, led off to the northeast, in the direction of a rectangular anomaly observed on the magnetic map, which could be another rock-cut shaft.

When the well runs dry: climatic instability and the abandonment of early Hellenistic Berenike

“…Hellenistic Berenike was a stone-walled, fortified city/base largely built atop a low rocky ridge immediately to the west of what would later become the unfortified Roman port city ( Figure 2). Archaeological excavations at Berenike, ongoing since 1994, have exposed the remains of the original Hellenistic site (Wozńiak & Radkowska 2014;Wozńiak 2017Wozńiak , 2019. Near the north-west corner of the fortress, immediately inside a gate through the outer wall, recent excavations have uncovered a well, along with accompanying water-storage and -distribution facilities.…”

A Falcon Shrine at the Port of Berenike (Red Sea Coast, Egypt)

“…Editions of papyri and ostraca are cited according to Papyri.info, "Checklist of Editions of Greek, Latin, Demotic, and Coptic Papyri, Ostraca, and Tablets," www.papy ri.info/docs/checklist. Greek inscriptions are in accordance with AIEGL, "GrEpiAbbr: Liste des abréviations des éditions et ouvrages de référence pour l'épigraphie grecque alphabétique," www.aiegl.org/grepiabbr.html, and are accompanied by their respective Trismegistos (TM; www.trismegistos.org) numeric identifiers.2 For background on Berenike and the excavations, see, e.g.,Sidebotham et al 2008; Sidebotham 2011;Woźniak 2018;Woźniak and Rądkowska 2019; Woźniak et al 2021. 3 On the Northern Complex, seeSidebotham 2007, 77-89; Zych et al 2016, 340-42; Sidebotham et al 2019, 11, for trench BE15-110 (there called the "putative Early Roman administrative building and warehouse area");Sidebotham et al 2020, 14-15.…”

Berenike Trogodytika: a Hellenistic fortress on the Red Sea coast, Egypt

“…The two largest pools may have had a total capacity of over 17 000 litres. This area was clearly important for water storage—also indicated by the presence of installations for the drainage and collection of rainwater adjacent to the gatehouse to the east (Woźniak 2018: 49–59). The existence of such water-collecting installations demonstrates that there was sufficient rainfall to make collection worthwhile, suggesting a more humid climate than today.…”