Tue Jun 11, 5:59 PM ET
By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer

LOS ANGELES - Spices, gems and other exotic cargo excavated from an
ancient port on Egypt's Red Sea show that the sea trade 2,000 years
ago between the Roman Empire and India was more extensive than
previously thought and even rivaled the legendary Silk Road,
archaeologists say.

"We talk today about globalism as if it were the latest thing, but
trade was going on in antiquity at a scale and scope that is truly
impressive," said the co-director of the dig, Willeke Wendrich of the
University of California at Los Angeles.

Wendrich and Steven Sidebotham of the University of Delaware report
their findings in the July issue of the journal Sahara.

Historians have long known that Egypt and India traded by land and
sea during the Roman era, in part because of texts detailing the
commercial exchange of luxury goods, including fabrics, spices and
wine.

Now, archaeologists who have spent the last nine years excavating the
town of Berenike say they have recovered artifacts that are the best
physical evidence yet of the extent of sea trade between the Roman
Empire and India.

They say the evidence indicates that trade between the Roman Empire
and India was as extensive as that of the Silk Road, the trade route
that stretched from Venice to Japan. Silk, spices, perfume, glass and
other goods moved along the Silk Road between about 100 B.C. and the
15th century.

"The Silk Road gets a lot of attention as a trade route, but we've
found a wealth of evidence indicating that sea trade between Egypt
and India was also important for transporting exotic cargo, and it
may have even served as a link with the Far East," Sidebotham said.

Among their finds at the site near Egypt's border with Sudan: more
than 16 pounds (7 kilograms) of black peppercorns, the largest stash
of the prized Indian spice ever recovered from a Roman archaeological
site.

Berenike lies at what was the southeastern extreme of the Roman
Empire and probably functioned as a transfer port for goods shipped
through the Red Sea. Trade activity at the port peaked twice, in the
first century and again around 500, before it ceased altogether,
possibly after a plague.

Ships would sail between Berenike and India during the summer, when
monsoon winds were strongest, Wendrich said. From Berenike, camel
caravans probably carried the goods 240 miles (386 kilometers) west
to the Nile, where they were shipped by boat to the Mediterranean
port of Alexandria, she said. From there, they could have moved by
ship through the rest of the Roman world.

Mediterranean goods, including wine from the Greek island of Kos and
fine tableware, moved in the opposite direction.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020611/ap_wo_en_ge/us_ancient_trade_1

http://www.archbase.com/berenike/

http://www.saharajournal.com/