Exotic Pets in Roman Berenike

Berenike is an old port on the Red Sea in southern Egypt. The site had long been known, and serious archaeology began in 1994. I have a general post about the site and two others on interesting religious discoveries (statue of the Buddha, cool shrine with headless falcons). Now there is an interesting article out about the town's pet cemetery:

To date, the burial ground, located on a small sandy hill in the foreground of the city, has yielded almost 800 burials spread over an area of 127 m2. Cats (Felis silvestris catus) were by far the most dominant species, accounting for 88.2% (688 individuals). The second most abundant species in the cemetery were dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), 54 individuals (7%) having so far been recorded. The third important taxonomic “component” in Berenike were monkeys from the Cercopithecinae sub-family (35 individuals). These included two identified genera of macaque species (Macaca), and a representative of the Chlorocebus species, the grivet. Monkeys accounted for 4.5% of the total number of burials. The zooarchaeological data, that is, age at death, sex, morphology, and pathological changes, clearly indicate that the animals buried in this cemetery were companion animals: brought in, cared for, fed, and well treated.

All of the monkeys found in the Berenike cemetery were female and young, which are said to make the best pets. They came from both India and sub-Saharan Africa. The monkeys seem to have died young because of nutritional deficiencies – hard to get good food for tropical forest monkeys in the Egyptian desert – and possibly also the drinking of salt water.

Also very interesting was that many monkeys were buried with grave goods. No dogs were so honored, and only 3 percent of cats. But 40 percent of the monkeys received burial offerings that included copper and iron collars, sections of iridiscent shell, clasps that were presumably part of leather or cloth collars,, and a woven basket containing some greasy material.

And then there were combined burials, like this one:

In this case, a young grivet monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops) appears to have embraced in its arms a young cat (3–6 months old). The kitten was facing the monkey and clutching its body. A wooden clasp next to the grivet’s body was most likely part of a body harness/ collar that the monkey had worn. Similar remains of collars, made of various materials, were discovered in many monkey and cat graves in Berenike.

Another monkey was buried in an iron collar, immersed in oil.

Fascinating people, the Romans.

Marta Osypińska1, Piotr Osypiński and Iwona Zych, "A centurion’s monkey? Companion animals for the social elite in an Egyptian port on the fringes of the Roman Empire in the 1st and 2nd c. CE." Journal of Roman Archaeology 38 (2025).