single government and the cessation of the Roman civil wars accomplished by Augustus (reigning from 27 BCE to 14 CE) promoted peace and prosperity and greatly increased the market for the Eastern goods. Besides the political reasons, the volume of the Eastern trade also increased as a result of the discovery of the monsoon sailing by the Greek captain, Hippalos, around the transition between BCE and CE. This lowered the costs as the maritime merchants could now transport their goods directly between the Red Sea and India, thus avoiding a long and dangerous coastal voyage (Bjorkelo et al. 2007:5; Young 2001:20, 26). The combination of a strong market and the means of effectively servicing that market clearly explain the prosperity of the Eastern trade under the Roman Empire (Young 2001:26).
There are several historical documents on the Roman maritime trade in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The best known and reliable source is the Periplus Maris Erythraei (PME) of c. the first century CE, written by an anonymous Greco-Egyptian merchant or ship captain living in Alexandria (Bjorkelo et al. 2007:3; Tomber 2008:20). As a practical guide aimed at merchants, its 66 short sections not only provide geographical information and sailing directions from the Roman Red Sea ports to India and East Africa but also itemize the goods coming in and out of these ports and the people encountered at each (BjØrkelo et al. 2007:3; Tomber 2008:20). The
Periplus is, therefore, a vital source for ancient cultural studies.
Other classical sources include, but are not limited to: (1) the Natural History, completed in 77 CE by Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE), describing Indian Ocean commerce including the voyage from the Red Sea to India and listing the natural products from the region. It adopted a moralizing tone bemoaning the effect of the Eastern trade on the Roman society; (2) the
Geography written by Strabo (c. 64/3 BCE—23 CE) in Greek around the early decades of the
first century CE with much of the information from earlier writers; (3) the Geography of the mid-second century CE by Claudius Ptolemy, an Alexandria-based Egyptian, writing in Greek and providing a world map and 26 regions that were used until the Age of Exploration;(4) the
Christian Topography written by Cosmas in the eleventh century CE; (5) the Muziris Papyrus,
dated to the mid-second century CE, a maritime loan contract for a journey between Alexandria and Muziris on the Malabar Coast of India, providing detailed instructions for transporting goods from the Red Sea to Alexandria (Tomber 2008:19-30). These sources are vital when
incorporated with the archaeological record in order to understand the nature of the maritime trade in the Indian Ocean.
Ports and Material Remains
There are many ports of Eastern trade in the Red Sea such as Clysma and Aila but Myos Hormos and Berenike seem to be major ones. The Periplus, for example, mentions only these two ports in the mid-first century CE. Myos Hormos is now Quseir al-Qadim while Berenike is Bernis in Egypt. Recent excavations suggest that Myos Hormos was mainly active between the late Augustan period and the mid-third century CE. However, some finds such as one coin of Ptolemy III and few Ptolemaic sherds suggest an earlier period of occupation. Most of the pots from this site were Roman amphorae of Egyptian and Italian origin dating to the late Augustan period. It is striking that Myos Hormos, despite its prominent role in the Red Sea and its over- 200-year occupation, lacks a well-established street system and substantial architecture; only few structures of ashlar, or coral from the adjacent reef, or mudbrick were identified (Tomber
2008:58-61).
Recent excavations at the Berenike, located 300 km. further south, suggest a longer history from the mid-third century BCE to early sixth century CE. Stone architecture was fairly common, composed of ashlar or coral or mudbrick as at Myos Hormos. The settlement
gradually migrated eastwards and southwards as a response to silting from the wadi and the shore, with the most intensive occupation from the mid-fourth century onwards. Both Myos Hormos and Berenike individually had access to the Nile through inland stations to transport goods to Alexandria. There is also a road, Via Hadriana, that ran along the Egyptian Red Sea connected the ports together. It started at Antinoopolis on the Nile and ended at Berenike although the main purposes of this road were military and administrative.
It has been assumed that the reason why these two ports were situated close to each other is because the northerly winds of the Red Sea were infamous and it was sometimes safer to
disembark at the more southerly location of Berenike where merchants could take a land route to Myos Hormos. Indian skippered ships may have had more difficulty reaching the northern port given their unfamiliarity with the winds; however, social factors like personal and family connections may have also convinced merchants and sailors to stop at Berenike (Tomber 2008:63).
The material remains of the Eastern trade in both Myos Hormos and Berenike are quite similar. In the Ptolemaic layers, exported items are almost absent; most of the remains are Egyptian sherds. This evidence contrasts starkly with that of the Augustan period in which we see the flowering of the Eastern trade in this region, as during their period of co-occupation, particularly between the late first century BCE and the late first century CE, the two ports shared an impressive range of Eastern imports from India, South Arabia and East Africa (Tomber 2008:71).
The small, drawn, monochromic glass “Indo-Pacific” beads, produced in South India and Sri Lanka, are common in Berenike. First, they were imported in small numbers during the Early Roman period but by the Late Roman period, numbers increased greatly. Rice is found in both ports and is believed to be consumed by the resident Indians. Basketry, matting and bamboo, seemingly from North India, were also discovered at Berenike17.
Important Indian finds are graffiti in Indian languages on pottery sherds that may imply the existence of Indian residency on the Red Sea. Five inscribed sherds have been found so far, four from Myos Hormos and one from Berenike. Three of those from Myos Hormos were inscribed with Tamil-Brahmi graffiti dated to around the first century CE, suggesting a connection with the far south of India where Tamil was spoken and written. The other one
17
The imbalance of the archaeological record between Myos Hormos and Berenike, said Tomber (2008:71), may be due to the scale of excavations, and not necessarily due to the actual activities in the past.
graffito from Myos Hormos is inscribed with Parkrit-Brahmi, a northerly South Indian script dated to the second or third century CE, perhaps from the Deccan region in India. The only one from Berenike is inscribed on a Roman amphora of the common Dressel 2-4 type with Tamil- Brahmi script also dated to around the first century CE (Tomber 2008:73-74). These graffiti, with personal names on most of them, imply the presence of Indian communities rather than trade in ceramics or their contents. This assumption is also supported by the evidence of other Indian pottery in the two Egyptian ports.
The earliest Indian pottery in the Red Sea are the two Red-and-Black Megalithic Wares found at Myos Hormos, indicating the pre-Roman contact between India and the Red Sea. Besides them, the major Indian wares that were contemporaneous with the Indo-Roman trade are Rouletted Wares (RW), Coarse Red-Slipped Wares (CRSW), and Organic Black Wares; all of them have been unearthed in Myos Hormos and Berenike. RW, an Indian fine ware probably produced in eastern India in the Chandraketugarh-Tamluk area in around the second century BCE to third century CE, is found almost exclusively at the two ports in contexts of the late first century BCE or first century CE. CRSW, a coarse ware produced in several places, at least in Kerala in southwestern India, is much more common in the Red Sea, especially during the Early Roman period. Also dated to the first century CE, the Organic Black Ware from the Gujarat region in northwest India is found in both ports although less common than CRSW. There is an exceptional example of the Indian storage jar with 7.5 kg of South Indian black pepper found in
situ in a first-century CE courtyard immediately north of the Serapis temple. This discovery
indicates that some Indian pottery arrived in Egypt as containers and pepper was also used for ritual purposes, not just for cooking. It is important to emphasize that finds of Indian coarse wares are restricted to port sites (with the single exception of a sherd found at the first road
station of Vectus Hydreuma between Berenike and the Nile), indicating that their usage was predominantly for Indians who resided at the Roman Red Sea ports (Tomber 2008:74-76). Although the trade between the Roman Red Sea and India could be operated directly using the monsoon winds, the merchants from both places could stop on the way at Opone in East Africa for slaves and rice and also at South Arabia in ports such as Qana, Syagros, and Khor Rori to trade for frankincense, myrrh, and Persian wine. There existed in Indian ports the so-called Torpedo jars, probably produced in Mesopotamia to contain Persian wine, which testify to direct maritime trade between South Arabia and India as well (Tomber 2008: 100-116).
The Indian Subcontinent
The complex social interactions in the Indian Ocean existed long before the emergence of the Indo-Roman maritime trade. In the third millennium BCE, the civilizations of Mesopotamia and the Indus valley developed a sophisticated network in the northwestern part of the Indian Ocean. This seaborne network involved several communities including those in Oman and Bahrain in the exchange of resources (Bjorkelo et al. 2007:4). The maritime network in the Indian Ocean seems to develop through time with a rhythm of flourishing and recession like anything else in the world. The Indian Ocean network, therefore, should be seen as an enormous web of commercial and social interactions between many groups, cities and states, with a life of its own. It transcended the life of any state and was never controlled by any empire. The network peaked when merchants of the Roman Empire entered the pre-existing maritime network (BjØrkelo et al. 2007:5). The expanding Roman market for natural resources, spices,
gems, and other kinds of exotica from India and the discovery of the monsoon navigation made the maritime trade between the Roman Red Sea and the Indian subcontinent blossom. In
response, trading stations and ports were developed throughout the Indian subcontinent. They were linked to one another generally through the pre-existing internal trade routes. Tomber (2008) outlines six regions as related to the trade:
First, the northwest region is the area between the Indus and the north of the Hindu Kush with Taxila and Begram. Taxila, the capital city of the Kushan Empire (second century BC to 230 CE), occupied a strategic location between the routes from Bactria and Central Asia. Although dominated by overland routes rather than maritime ones, Taxila also had access to the Indus system that led to the Arabian Sea. It was in this city that the Iranian, Indian and
Hellenistic element merged and that Gandhara Art emerged. Taxila had a Western-inspired local gem-carving industry as well. Further inland in what is now Afghanistan, Begram was the crossroad for caravan routes between the Mediterranean, India, and China. There, an exceptional cache, so-called “the Begram treasure”, was found in what is believed to be a royal palace
containing bronze, rock crystal glass and plaster models for metalworkers from the
Mediterranean in association with Indian and Chinese objects. Some of the glass found there was analyzed and it appeared to have come from Egypt. The treasure was thought to date within a generation of 100 CE (Tomber 2008:122-124). It should be noted also that the amphora- shaped glass vessel from Phukhao Thong in Peninsular Siam, mentioned earlier, may be inscribed with the title of an elite person from Begram (Kapisa). This region provided a passageway between both the overland and maritime trade routes.
Second, Gujarat and the Konkan Coast are located on the Indus and Narmada that can provide an access to central India. There were two major ports in this region; both were mentioned in the Periplus. The first is Barbarikon located at the mouth of the Indus in modern Pakistan. The second is Barygaza (Bharuch), the port that was mentioned most frequently in the
Periplus, situated on the northern bank of the Narmada which connected the port with the rich
hinterland and with three different routes to Bactria, the Ganges Valley, and the lower Krishna Valley. Not only was it a port but also a manufacturing center. Barygaza yields a variety of imported amphorae including those dating to the Early and Late Roman period and others from Mesopotamia. The Torpedo jars are also present here. A small amount of Roman coins was reported. They may have served as bullion where the local coins of precious metal were rare. Other small Roman objects include an Early Roman quartz cameo from Karvana and a bronze jug handle with a relief figure of Eros straddling an amphora from Akota (Tomber 2008:124- 128).
Third, Tamluk and Chandraketugarh were important sites in the northeast. This region is on the Ganges and had been largely autonomous except during the Maurya and Gupta Empires. Roman evidence in this region is thin; however, two Latin seals from Rajbadidanga with
personal names, ‘Oaborra’ and “Horae’, were reported but are no longer available for inspection. Despite the absence of the Roman finds, this region produced significant items for the Indo- Roman trade. Gangetic cotton is mentioned by the Periplus, while Gangetic nard by the Muziris papyrus. The Tamluk-Chandraketugarh area may be the epicenter of the rouletted ware (RW) production as well. It is believed that the Roman contact with this region was indirect,
particularly through southeast India. This northeast-southeast connection is supported by the distributions of the Indo-Pacific beads from the south and the RW from the north. The Gangetic region was crucial in the interactions with Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. It seems that this region was the vital source of Indian goods and Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Tamluk was also an important port that had connection with China; embassies were sent from this port to China in
the third century CE and Chinese pilgrims, including Fa-hsein (or Faxian), of the early fifth century CE stayed here as well (Tomber 2008:128-130).
Fourth, the Deccan includes the area between the Krishna and Godavari Rivers and the Satavahana Empire (200 BCE to 250 CE) had its capital at Paithan (Tomber 2008:130). Nevasa, Kolhapur and Ter were important sites. Kolhapur yielded one of the most exciting groups of Roman finds in India. This was a collection of indigenous and imported metal sculptures; however, this group seems to be not chronologically homogeneous as one of them (a statuette of Poseidon) may be dated as early as the third century BCE. More reliable finds are fragments of imported amphorae found at Nevasa, a major center and manufacturing site located at the junction of trade routes leading from the interior to the coast, in which 15 sherds can be dated to between the first and third centuries CE (Tomber 2008:130-132).
Fifth, Tamilakam politically comprised the three chiefdoms of Chola, Pandya and Chera; they all used Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions. The most important ports are Arikamedu, Alagankulam and Pattanam. Arikamedu is located on the Ariyankuppam River on the Coromandel Coast. It has occupational layers dating from before the Roman trade. An earlier Megalithic phase fishing community was found. Arikamedu was not only a port but a center of production, with its peak between 50 BCE and 50 CE, in which a number of workshops have been identified including workshops for metal, glass, gemstones, ivory and shell in the Southern Sector of the site18. Roman finds are common in this ancient port including intaglios and pottery fragments. Excavations at the site reveal a number of Roman sigillata sherds derived from Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean (ESA, ESB). They vary in date between c. 10 BCE and 50 CE. Greek Koan amphorae dated to between the first century BCE and the Augustan period were found. A
18
This site was extensively excavated by Sir Mortimer Wheeler and later by V. Begley. For more information, see Wheeler et al. (1946) and Begley (1996‐2004).
wide variety of pottery from the West found at the site include Eastern (Kos, Knidos, Rhodes, Turkey) and Western (Italy, Gaul, Spain, North Africa) Mediterranean pottery, amphorae from Egypt (both Nile Valley and Mareotis products), and an Organic Storage Jar from the
Hadramawt. Other Mediterranean finds are coins (with questionable provenance), lamps, glass vessels and beads (including gold foil) (Tomber 2008:132-137). Because of the early date of some of the Maditeranean material and the suddenness with which it is superimposed upon a purely native culture, Wheeler (1955:150) believed it indicated the essentially Augustan organization of regulated monsoon traffic; while the remoteness of the site from the Roman Empire emphasizes the range of this new organization which was reaching out eastwards to the sources of pearls and silk.
Alagankulam, located on the Vaigai River leading to the turbulent Gulf of Mannar, was an important trading site. It yielded a range of Roman pottery, including three sigillata sherds from Italy and Asia Minor (ESB), and six Roman coins from the late 4th and early 5th century. This site may have superseded Arikamedu. Important resources of the Coimbatore region were pearls (from the Gulf of Mannar), beryls (aquamarine and emerald), and other gems as well. The Coimbatore area has the greatest concentration of Roman coin hoards, primarily Julio-Claudian coins. Three hoards comprising issues of Augustus, Tiberius and Claudius were found in the Karur area. Around 4,500 Late Roman bronze coins have been collected from Karur and Madurai, while recent excavations at Karur have produced a Roman silver coin and amphorae from both Early and Late Roman periods. A hoard of gold jewelry founded at Vellalore dated to the 1st century BCE/CE has been attributed to a mixture of Roman and Indian craftspersons. Foreign craftspersons, as elsewhere, seemed to inspire the local artists in Tamil Nadu as they imitated their objects (Tomber 2008:140).
Muziris was recently archaeologically identified with Pattanam located 1 km southwest of the Paravur Thodu. The occupation of the site seems to range from the late 1st century BCE to the 3rd century CE. Some Roman amphorae and Italian sigillata are found along with RW and Paddle Impressed Wares from eastern India. Four coin hoards are also found in vicinity of Pattanam (Tomber 2008:142-144).
Sixth, Sri Lanka or Taprobane called by the Greeks and Romans was strategically located as a commercial intermediary between China and the West. Coins are the most prolific Roman find in Sri Lanka; only a handful of Early Imperial coins have been found, in contrast to the over 200,000 ‘third brass’ and Indo-Roman imitations dating to the fourth and fifth centuries