Carmarthen Classical Association
Title of paper: Cluedo in the Eastern Desert: Who, or What, Killed Berenice and Myos Hormos? Plague, Climate, War or Competing Trade Routes
Speakers: Lev Cosijns (University of Oxford) and Haggai Olshanestky (University of Warsaw)
Time, date and location: 18:00 BST (19:00 CEST) on Thursday 28th May (online via MS Teams).
Abstract: Throughout history, trade brought prosperity and wealth, founding cities in its wake. The cities of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, Berenice and Myos Hormos, were not unique in this, and the Indo-Roman trade was essential in their ability to flourish. However, this trade through Egypt declined during the 2nd century and almost ceased to exist in the 3rd century CE and with it, the cities, towns, and ports of the Eastern Desert suffered and died. Yet, a reversal of fortune in the 4th century CE brought a resurgence of trade and a revival of the urban communities of the area. Accordingly, this talk will examine and compare the rise and fall of the Indo-Roman trade network travelling through Egypt and understand its role in the prosperity and in the lifecycle of the Eastern Desert, and Egypt as a whole. It will be highlighted, unlike current research, that due to an amended timing of the decline of the Eastern desert ports and in the trade travelling through them, climate and plague did not play a significant role in their demise. Rather, anthropogenic causes and competing trade routes were the main factors determining the volume of trade travelling through Berenice and Myos Hormos.
These port cities had a significant role in this trade, and so their demise is key to understanding the fluctuations of Indo-Roman trade. Thus, this topic will be used to reassess and reconstruct the map of Indo-Roman and Indo-Chinese trade and its changes between the 1st to the 6th centuries CE. Changes in this trade will be presented at greater resolution, and a coherent explanation for these fluctuations will be offered. The subsequent analysis will show how variations in trends, trade routes, and politics, especially conflicts between the empires, played a vital role in the changing volume of this trade. This in turn affected the preference of certain trade routes over others, which may have been a main cause for the decline of the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
All are welcome. To request to attend, please email either R.Parkes@uwtsd.ac.uk or m.cobb@uwtsd.ac.uk
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