Seven huddled skeletons, located in several layers, were found in a monumental tomb from 1,500 years ago. Polish archaeologists found out that these were representatives of the elite of the port city of Berenike on the Red Sea in Egypt.
The scientists’ attention was drawn by the unusual way the bodies were arranged in the stone box. The skeletons looked as if the dead were buried in a hunched position – the bones of the lower limbs rested on the chest.
“This is not a natural position. To achieve it, the deceased had to be restrained with ropes or wrapped with a cloth after death,” research leader Dr Mariusz Gwiazda of the Center for Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw told PAP (Polish Press Agency). He conducts the research in Berenike together with Prof. Steven Sidebotham from the University of Delaware (USA).
The archaeologist stresses that the tomb was full of various equipment, which proves that it belonged to very important representatives of this ancient city. They had a high social status. Among the items found were beads made of raw materials that had come to Berenike even from Pakistan, India and Indonesia. These included onyx and carnelian. For the last journey, the dead were also equipped with several silver rings and earrings, and bracelets made of ivory. The rings are in a style familiar to the Egyptian-Sudanese borderlands.
The city of Berenike was founded in the third century BC by Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Initially, the port was used for the transhipment of African elephant transports. In the first centuries AD the Romans, who took control over Egypt, made the city an important point in the transoceanic trade connecting Black Africa, the Middle East and India.
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