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).

Lugdunum: Roman Lyons

The Vaise Treasure, buried around AD 260 and excavated in 1992

Lugdunum, modern Lyon, France, was in Roman times the greatest city of northwestern Europe, with a population of about 70,000. It was founded in about 43 BC as a settlement of veterans from Caesar's wars. The spot is such a great one – at the confluence of two significant rivers, perfectly positioned to control overland trade from the Mediterrean to Gaul and Britain – that it ought to have beeen settled a long time before that. Archaeologists, alas, have had a hard time documenting this. There seems to have been a small settlement on a nearby hill, but when people dig in the rest of the Roman city all they find is Roman stuff. Numerous stray artifacts from the Iron Age have turned up, but no little evidence of buildings. One interesting thing that has been found is pits full of animal bones, such as might be left from a great feast. So the reigning theory is that in the Iron Age most of the site was a sort of fair ground where people from north and south met to trade and feast, kept neutral by not allowing anyone to build there.

Roman Lugdunum grew rapidly. It got a big boost from Augustus' campaign to conquer Germania, which began in 20 BC. Lugdunum became a major supply hub, and a network of roads was built or improved radiating out from the city in all directions. By 10 BC the city had a major aqueduct and a theater that seated 4,500.

Emperor Claudius – above, on a coin minted in Lugdunum – had a great bridge built across the river, which required sinking the pylons deep through the swampy ground.

One of the most famous objects in the Lugdunum Musée et Théâtres Romains is the Sarcophagus with the Triumph of Bacchus, carved around 200 AD and found in 1845.

Bronze statue of Neptune known as the Neptune of Lyon.

Part of the Claudian Table, a large bronze plaque recording a speech Emperor Claudius gave at Lugdunum in 48 AD, found in 1526.

The "swastika mosaic," excavated in 1911 from a grand villa within the city.

Map of the Roman city.

The Circus Mosaic. Wish I were going to this museum today instead of what I have to do.

Ancient Artifacts from Phoenix Ancient Arts

Objects for sale by, or recently sold by, Phoenix Ancient Arts. Bust of a Roman Goddess, bronze. Of obscure provenance, in private hands since the 19th century.

Bronze lamp from Sardiniain the shape of a boat, "Nuragic," c. 700 BC. What a delightfully weird thing.

Hellenistic intaglio with a face of Medusa, c. 200 BC.

Roman marble portrait of Agrippina the Elder (granddaughter of Augustus), 1st century AD

Hellenistic gold pendant, 4th century BC. Possibly from a Black Sea colony. If it is genuine; it has no provenance beyond "Ex- Schaefer collection, South Germany, 1960’s"

Greek terracotta trefoil oinochoe (wine jug), 6th century BC

Roman marble portrait bust of Empress Sabina, c. 130 AD

Egyptian gilded and painted wood falcon headed sarcophagus, 26th-30th Dynasty, 664-343 BC

Helmet from a Roman marble statue of Mars, 50 to 150 AD

Limestone figurine of a seated worhipper, ancient Near East, c. 3000 BC

Conimbriga

Coninbriga is an archaeological site in Portugal mostly known for its impressive Roman ruins.

Plan of the site from Google Earth.

It is an ancient place, first inhabited in the Bronze Age, but it grew greatly under Roman rule and was made a municipium in 70 AD. Archaeologists estimate that its population at that time was around 10,000.

The baths. Excavation of the site began in the late 1800s and it became an archaeological park in 1910. 

The walled garden of a town house.

Mosaic details.

The aqueduct.

At the height of the empire, the site was unwalled, but in the later 200s walls were constructed. They did not, alas, save it from being sacked by the Sueves in 468. It declined thereafter, and the bishop moved away to a different site around 570. The modern town of Coimbra grew up there, leaving the Roman site to decay into these splendid ruins.

Alderney Roman Fort

Alderney is one of the Channel Islands, little bits of British territory off the French coast. Alderney boasts one town and a bunch of old fortifications. These include an Elizabethan fort (above),

a substantial set of forts and batteries built in the 1800s, 

and several concrete blockhouses built by the Nazis. 

All of which was probably a waste of time, because most experts who have looked at the place have deemed it fundamentally indefesible:

The island was never able to effectively defend itself and survived attack mainly from being too poor and insignificant to be worth the expense of raiding. 

Gladstone dismissed the 19th-century plan of fortification as

a monument of human folly, useless to us...but perhaps not absolutely useless to a possible enemy, with whom we may at some period have to deal and who may possibly be able to extract some profit in the way of shelter and accommodation from the ruins

The WW II Allies simply ignored the place, leaving its very hungry defenders to surrender at the end of the war.

But besides all those well documented forts, there is this thing, known as The Nunnery. What is it?

Well, it looks like a Roman fort, albeit with a few later additions. The stonework seems Roman, and the shape closely resembled the four Roman "signal stations" along the east coast of Yorkshire. But the walls of those signal stations survive to about knee height. Who ever heard of a Roman fort with standing walls 18 feet high?

Debate about the site therefore raged for more than 150 years.

Excavations carried out in 2008 to 2011 finally nailed the site's origin: Roman artifacts found around the foundation confirm that it is indeed a Roman fort. It now bills itself the best preserved Roman fort in Britain.

Elizabethan records describe a tall tower standing in the center of the fort, but that disappeared before any archaeologist got a good look at it. But they did find the foundations, which showed that this tower was pretty big, leading them to reconstruct it like this. I don't know how could you tell from the foundations that the walls went straight up, rather than some sort of pyramid? But anyway this is the official interpetation.

I learned about this from a sort of New Year's best wishes email I received from a regular reader of this blog who lives in Alderney. I loved learning about Alderney, and I love knowing that I have readers around the world.

The House of the Birds

The House of the Birds is a Roman villa near Seville in Spain. This was the Roman colony of Italica, founded after the war with Hannibal as a settlement of veterans. Archaeological excavation of the site began in 1810. 

The House of the Birds had several fine mosaics but is best known for this one, depicting 33 different species.

Mallard duck

Sparrow

Pigeon

Parrot

Heron

Owl

Peacock