Adornment deposits: a study of bead and jewellery remains from Late Antiquity tombs in the Red Sea port of Berenike

ABSTRACT

Next to pottery, items of adornment comprise the most abundant material excavated in Northeast Africa, often being the only evidence for long-distance interactions. Interdisciplinary research has been developed to demonstrate that beads, particularly those of Indian origin from port sites on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, may attest to intense relations between North Africa and Asia. Parallels and provenance examination of recent bead and jewellery finds (four silver and coral earrings, eight silver rings and about eleven ivory bangles) from two Late Antiquity tombs of the fourth/fifth centuries AD at Berenike also suggest links between the Red Sea coast and the Nubian Nile Valley. Additionally, these ornaments raise questions as to their function in multiple burials. It is not possible to determine whether they were used as part of the funerary ritual or as offerings to the individuals buried, but several observations can be offered.

RÉSUMÉ

Après la poterie, les objets de parure constituent le matériau le plus abondant découvert lors de fouilles en Afrique du Nord-Est, représentant souvent la seule preuve d’interactions à longue distance. Des recherches interdisciplinaires ont été développées pour démontrer que les perles, en particulier celles d’origine indienne provenant des sites portuaires de la côte égyptienne de la mer Rouge, peuvent témoigner de relations intenses entre l’Afrique du Nord et l’Asie. Les parallèles et l’examen de la provenance de découvertes récentes de perles et de bijoux (quatre boucles d’oreilles en argent et en corail, huit bagues en argent et environ onze bracelets en ivoire) provenant de deux tombes de l’Antiquité tardive des quatrième et cinquième siècles après J.-C. à Bérénice suggèrent également des liens entre la côte de la mer Rouge et la Vallée du Nil nubienne. De plus, ces ornements soulèvent des questions quant à leur fonction dans plusieurs sépultures. Il n’est pas possible de déterminer s’ils furent utilisés dans le cadre du rituel funéraire ou comme offrandes pour les personnes inhumées, mais on peut proposer plusieurs observations.

KEYWORDS:

• Glass beads
• silver and coral jewellery
• Red Sea trade
• Indian Ocean trade
• Northeast Africa
• Berenike
• Egypt
• Nubia
• Late Antiquity

Introduction

Berenike, a Red Sea port located in the Eastern Desert of Egypt (Figure 1) that was founded by Ptolemy II in the third century BC, has been investigated by the American-Dutch-Polish Projects since 1994 (Wendrich et al. 2003; Sidebotham 2011; Sidebotham and Zych 2011; Zych 2018). Previous research examining the city’s history, from its beginnings to the Roman period, showed that Berenike offers an excellent example of a cosmopolitan harbour that benefited greatly from long-distance trade. Objects uncovered there leave no doubt that it was a genuine melting pot in which lived people of various ethnicities, religions, cultures and social standings from all around the ancient world, including the Mediterranean, Aksum, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, the kingdoms of southern Arabia, Nabataea and Palmyra (Tomber 2008; Sidebotham 2011: 69). Elites and ordinary residents contributed in equal measure to the city’s development, with crew members of merchant ships, parties passing through the Eastern Desert, craftsmen and the inhabitants of adjacent areas all supplying the goods and services required by its inhabitants (Tomber 2008; Sidebotham 2011: 69).

Figure 1. The location of Berenike with illustrations of the tombs excavated there: 1) Berenike town and cemeteries (by M. Gwiazda, M. Łuba, M. Wiktorzak, Sz. Popławski, © Maxar Technologies, and NTT DATA Corporation and the Berenike Project); 2) orthophotographic plan of chamber Tomb N1-3 (by P. Czernic and M. Gwiazda and the Berenike Project); 3) burials in the northeastern burial chest of Tomb N1-3 (photograph by M. Gwiazda and the Berenike Project); 4: jewellery remains in Tomb N1-3 (photograph by M. Gwiazda and the Berenike Project); 5: orthophotographic plan of the southern part (N2) of the northwestern cemetery (by P. Czernic and M. Gwiazda and the Berenike Project); 6: front side of shaft superstructure in the enclosure of Tomb N2-1 (photograph by M. Gwiazda and the Berenike Project); 7: ossuary in the same shaft (photograph by M. Gwiazda and the Berenike Project).

The recent find of a monumental inscription set up by Mochosak, a wealthy interpreter (ἑρμηνϵύς) on behalf of King Isemne, confirms the intense involvement of Eastern Desert nomads known as the Blemmyes in Berenike in Late Antiquity (Ast and Rądkowska 2020). As I discuss later, numerous other literary and archaeological sources evidence the Blemmyes’ mobility in the area between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, as well as their trading capacities. Richly furnished tumulus cemeteries dating to the mid-fourth century AD and later that can be attributed to them have been identified at Kalabsha and Wadi Qitna in the Dodekaschoinos (literally ‘twelve schoinos’ or ∼120 km), a strategic region stretching along the west and east banks of the Lower Nubian Nile Valley (Ricke 1967; Strouhal 1984; Williams 1991: 12; Obłuski 2013) (Figure 2).

The Blemmyes of the Dodekaschoinos were conquered in the mid-fifth century AD by Silko, the king of Nobadia, one of three contemporary Nubian kingdoms. Being neighbours in the region, the peoples of the Eastern Desert and Nubia probably had strong links that should be reflected in their tomb assemblages (Manzo 2004, 2014; Barnard 2008; Obłuski 2013, 2014). The Nobadian royal and élite tumulus cemetery at Qustul is dated to about AD 370–380, while that at Ballaña dates to about 420 (Emery and Kirwan 1938; Farid 1963) (Figure 2). Elite tumulus cemeteries of the Early Makurian kingdom are known further south in Upper Nubia at Tanqasi, Hammur, El-Hobagi and El-Zuma (Shinnie 1954; Lenoble et al. 1994; Żurawski 2000; El-Tayeb et al. 2021) (Figure 2). Several Nobadian and Makurian tumuli had multi-chambered sub-structures to contain the individual (or individuals) buried within them, as well as abundant grave goods. Nubian kings, for example, were typically buried with their regalia, including silver crowns, spears and other military accessories (Emery and Kirwan 1938). Among these grave goods, imports are not uncommon and comprise metal vessels, items of furniture, horse harnesses, wooden boxes with ivory inlays, game boards and gaming pieces and toilet articles, while large amounts of pottery, including Mediterranean amphorae, were probably used in accompanying funerary rituals (Emery and Kirwan 1938; El-Tayeb et al. 2021). Last, but not least, these tumuli also abounded in beadwork and other forms of jewellery (Emery and Kirwan 1938; Then-Obłuska 2017, 2021b).

Figure 2. Map showing the location of Berenike and the distribution of South Indian/Sri Lankan glass beads in Northeast Africa (adapted from Then-Obłuska et al. 2022).

Current studies of tombs at Berenike aim to identify the beads and jewellery recovered there to gain a better understanding of those living in the Eastern Desert and their connections after the Roman period, i.e. in the fourth to early sixth centuries AD. These tombs occur to the southwest of the town in the form of a tumulus burial ground covering 4 km² (N3–N9), as well as northwest of it in the form of a necropolis that has several rectangular tombs (N1–N2) (Figure 1:1) (Barnard 1998; Sidebotham et al. 2008: 228–230; Gwiazda et al. 2024). Recent excavations at two of these tombs, N1-3 and N2-1, yielded new evidence of Eastern Desert people buried at the Red Sea coast (Gwiazda et al. 2024).

Tomb N1-3, one of several above-ground structures built on a hill by the road leading to the city of Berenike (Figure 1:1), had its walls and floors made of coral heads. It features a rectangular chamber, almost 7 m long, with an entrance from the east (Gwiazda et al. 2024) (Figure 1:2). The tomb yielded untouched burials with rich furnishings, including two stone chests fitted with wooden boxes, one of which contained a multiple burial. Based on its rich equipment, including ceramic vessels and small stone incense burners, the tomb can be dated to the fourth/fifth centuries (Gwiazda et al. 2024). The skeletal remains of six individuals were laid one on top of the other in a flexed position on their backs (Gwiazda et al. 2024) (Figure 1:3). More than 700 items of personal adornment — beads, pendants, earrings, rings, most probably finger rings and bangle fragments – were deposited over the chest of one of the bodies (Figure 1:4).

Tomb N2-1 consisted of three shaft burials within an enclosure wall (Figure 1:5). The shaft in the western part of enclosure N2-1 was covered with a superstructure of fitted coral heads with a roughly barrel-shaped top, 1.30 m long and 0.90 m wide (Gwiazda et al. 2024). A triangular niche was fitted into this side inside which stood a small four-cornered terracotta offering altar decorated with an incised wave ornament resembling Eastern Desert Ware vessels (Figure 1:6). The shaft itself was 3.20 m deep, terminating in a cist formed of stone slabs. Dispersed beads lay in a crack between the stones at the northern part of the cist. At the bottom of the shaft were two ceramic storage vessels containing the well-preserved bones of two adult individuals, a practice indicative of secondary deposition (Figure 1:7). The pottery assemblage from the fill of tomb N2-1 included a small number of the Eastern Desert Ware tableware (Gwiazda et al. 2024).

Berenike was no longer under Roman control at the time that these tombs were constructed and used, while the items of personal adornment found with the multiple burials within them not only testify to connections with the wider Indian Ocean, Northeast African and Mediterranean worlds, but also suggest the use of conspicuous forms of funerary practice by Eastern Desert peoples.

Materials and methods

More than 700 items of personal adornment and their fragments were found in Tombs N1-3 and N2-1. The distribution of these artefacts between the two tombs is uneven with respect to both type and number. While the material from Tomb N1-3 comprises a few dozen pieces of silver and ivory jewellery and more than 680 beads, the ornament assemblage from a shaft of Tomb N2-1 consists of 62 beads and pendants. The material itself, the manufacture techniques used in the production of the ornaments and the shapes of the finds help to establish their origin and parallels in the period under discussion. An overview of the ornament types, materials and quantities is given in Table 1, while their detailed examination, according to tomb number, ornament type and material, is presented below.

Table 1. Distribution of ornaments in Tombs N1-3 and N2-1.

Material	Tomb N1-3	Tomb N2-1
Beads and pendants
Mollusc shell		1
Coral	13
Carnelian	12
Onyx	8
Agate	1
Glazed steatite		1
Faience	1	3
Glass, oblate, green	268	2
Glass, hexagonal bicones, green	211
Glass, tear-drop pendants, green/blue/colourless?		8
Glass, cornerless cuboids, blue?		2
Glass, segmented		5
Glass, other (corroded)	24	40
Silver	77
Silver, oblate segments	69
Total	684	62
Earrings
Silver and coral	4
Rings
Silver	8
Bangles
Elephant ivory fragments	∼11 (total weight: 137 g)

Ornaments from Tomb N1-3

The ornament assemblage in Tomb N1-3 surpasses that from N2-1 in both number and variety. It contains beads made of various materials (coral, onyx, carnelian, glass and silver), a set of four silver and coral earrings, eight silver items that were most probably finger rings and the remains of ivory bangles (Table 1).

Beads

Thirteen long cylinder coral beads measuring between 3 and 4 mm in diameter (Figure 3) are made of the Mediterranean coral Corallium rubrum. Similar coral beads have been identified in Late Roman/Early Byzantine Berenike (Then-Obłuska 2015: Figure 2.2). Additionally, coral beads have also been recovered from broadly contemporary élite tombs in Lower Nubia, including the cemeteries at Qustul and Ballaña (Emery and Kirwan 1938: Plates 43–44), and Upper Nubia, where salmon-coloured specimens were found in a burial at Musa (Then-Obłuska 2018: Plate 3, T1.81), as part of a belt in a grave at Tabo (Jacquet-Gordon and Bonnet 1971: 81) and at El-Zuma (Then-Obłuska 2021b: 7).

Figure 3. Examples of coral and glass beads from Tomb N1-3: 1) beads BE21-144-014-027_F473 (a — glass); 2) beads BE21-144-014-027_F474-480 (photographs by J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

Eight long, barrel-shaped onyx (mostly sardonyx) beads have been drilled from both ends, probably with diamond chip drills (Figure 4). Given the material and the technique of their execution they may be of Indian origin (Kenoyer 2003). Interestingly, these beads also find parallels in Qustul and Ballaña (Emery and Kirwan 1938: Plate 47A, Qustul, Tomb Q. 3-85, Room 3, Type 81; Plate 46D, Tomb B. 110-27, Room 1, Types 19, 36, 37, 84, 85).

Figure 4. Examples of onyx beads from Tomb N1-3: 1–2) beads BE21-144-014-027_F474-480; 3) bead BE21-144-014-028_F521; 4–5) beads BE21-144-014-028_F537; 6) bead BE21-144-014-033_F592-594; 7) bead BE21-144-014-033_F633-635 (photographs by J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

The assemblage also features 12 faceted, tetragonal and hexagonal, carnelian bicones (Figure 5). Like the onyx beads, they must have been drilled from both ends using diamond chip drills, which again implies an Indian provenance (Kenoyer 2003; Then-Obłuska 2018: 590). Examples have been recorded from Early Byzantine Berenike in Egypt (Then-Obłuska 2015: Figure 3.6–7), Tell al-Sin and Deir el-Zor in Syria (Montero Fenollós and Al-Shbib 2008: Plate lx:1), Lower Nubian Qustul (Oriental Institute Museum (OIM)/Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum (ISACM) University of Chicago, OIM E20308, E20624M, E21367, with dates of AD 370/380–410), Gammai (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/MFA 42.142, grave E 64), the Fourth Cataract sites of Kassinger Bahri and El-Zuma (Then-Obłuska 2014: Plate ii, Catalogue number 215, 216; 2021b: 12) and still further up the Nile at Gabati (Edwards 1998: Figure 10:74).

Figure 5. Examples of carnelian beads from Tomb N1-3: 1) bead BE21-144-014-028_F538; 2) bead BE21-144-014-028_F544; 3) bead BE21-144-014-033_F589; 4–5) beads BE21-144-014-033_F633-635; 6) bead BE21-144-014-033_F592-594 (photographs by J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

Green glass beads dominate the glass bead assemblage from Tomb N1-3. Among them, 211 were made of rod-pierced green glass — likely to be of Egyptian provenance judging by its state of preservation (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019b: 182) — and shaped into faceted bicones (Figure 6). Similar beads were recorded from Qustul tomb M1 (Williams 1991: 150, 401 = OIM E23653).

Figure 6. Examples of faceted and tabular glass beads from Tomb N1-3: 1) beads BE21-144-014-027_F474-480; 2) beads BE21-144-014-028_F550, 552, 554, 553, 556, 536, 539, 540 (two beads), 512, 529, 535, 545, 546, 548 541, 542, 543, 544; 3) beads BE21-144-014-033 (photographs by J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

In addition, there are 268 drawn and rounded green glass beads of most probably South Indian/Sri Lankan origin (Figure 7). Their sharp ends would have been smoothed by mixing with ash and heating while being stirred in a pan. Ash prevents the beads from sticking one to another. As a result, the beads have more-or-less rounded ends. This way of rounding drawn glass beads is considered to designate an Indian/Sri Lankan technique (Francis 2002). The beads are tiny, measuring between 1 and 5 mm in diameter, and are usually monochrome, with some decorated with stripes or outer layers. The glass from which they are made has a specific composition and, contrary to Levantine and Egyptian glasses, features a high level of alumina. A few sub-types of this glass have been distinguished based on trace element concentrations (Dussubieux et al. 2010). The high-alumina glass found in the Red Sea port of Quseir to the north of Berenike and in Late Antique Nubia exhibits average concentrations of trace elements that match sub-type 1 (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019a, 2019b; Then-Obłuska and Dussubieux 2016), which is common at South Indian and Sri Lankan sites dating to between the turn of the first century BC and the fifth century AD (Dussubieux et al. 2010). Thanks to typological and chemical compositional evidence, the South Indian/Sri Lankan beads are recognisable imports into Northeast Africa in Late Antiquity, where they appear at both coastal and inland sites (Figure 2) (Francis 2002; Then-Obłuska 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019a, 2019b; Then-Obłuska and Dussubieux 2016, 2021, 2023; Spedding 2019). They make up nearly half of the bead collections from the Egyptian Red Sea ports (Francis 2002; Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019a, 2019b; Then-Obłuska 2021a). However, they were much less common in the Nile Valley, accounting for only 10% of all the glass beads present at some sites there (Then-Obłuska 2021a: Figure 9). In Lower Nubia, a few South Indian/Sri Lankan beads first appear as early as the mid-fourth century at the Blemmyan sites of Bab Kalabsha and Wadi Qitna (Then-Obłuska and Dussubieux 2021), increasing in number at the late fourth-century sites of Qustul and Gammai, and then at Ballaña from the beginning of the fifth century (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019b; Then-Obłuska and Dussubieux 2023). Upriver from the Third Cataract, they have been excavated in Early Makurian tombs dated to between the mid-fifth and mid-sixth centuries (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019b). Drawn and rounded glass beads have also been observed to dominate some bead assemblages at Aksum in Ethiopia (Then-Obłuska et al. 2022).

Figure 7. Examples of drawn and rounded glass beads from Tomb N1-3: 1) beads in situ; 2) beads BE21-144-014-027_F474-480; 3) beads BE21-144-014-028_F558, 560-563 (photographs by M. Gwiazda, J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

Seventy-seven silver ellipsoid beads comprise the second most common bead type in Tomb N1-3 after those made from glass (Figure 8:1–9). They are about 3 mm in diameter and 6 mm long but are unfortunately heavily corroded. Based on the preserved fragments, the silver beads were either attached jointly or alternated on a string with glass or coral beads. The two most spectacular examples of their use — a necklace of coral and silver beads (Emery and Kirwan 1938: 47, Plate 47B; JE The Egyptian Museum in Cairo 70271) and a bracelet (JE 70278) — come from Qustul tomb 14. Additionally, 69 oblate silver beads are about 2.5 mm in diameter and, when put together, would have made a uniform object 13 cm long (Figure 8:10–11). Although a wide selection of silver beads has been attested in Nobadian and Blemmyan assemblages, no exact parallels have been found so far (Emery and Kirwan 1938; Then-Obłuska 2016: Figure 2 – Wadi Qitna, tomb F).

Figure 8. Examples of silver and other beads from Tomb N1-3: 1) beads BE21-144-014-028_F581; 2–7: beads BE21-144-014-027_F473 (a — glass, b — coral); 8) beads BE21-144-014-028_F565; 9) beads BE21-144-014-027_F474-480; 10) beads BE21-144-014-028_F559; 11) beads BE21-144-014-028_F565 (photographs by J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

Rings

It is not only beads that make up the ornament assemblage from Tomb N1-3 (Figure 9). Other silver ornaments from it include eight rings with a curved (convex-concave) profile. They measure between 19 and 22 mm in diameter and are 6.1–6.7 mm high. In two cases the rings are joined together, i.e. one ring is inserted into the other to form a double ring. While items of this kind are probably illustrated from one of the Ballaña tombs, no reference to them can be traced in the accompanying text (Emery and Kirwan 1938: Plate 85). However, the Berenike rings do find exact parallels at Gammai (MFA 42.133-5). Note, too, that the silver bangles from Qustul come in the same shape and were made with the same technique as the finger rings from Berenike (JE 70316).

Figure 9. Silver rings from Tomb N1-3 (BE21-144-014-028_F571 not illustrated): 1) rings BE21-144-014-019_F304; 2) ring BE21-144-014-027_F471; 3) ring BE21-144-014-027_F472; 4) rings BE21-144-014-028_F566; 5) ring BE21-144-014-033_F600 (photographs by J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

Earrings

The four silver and coral earrings found make for the most spectacular find from Tomb N1-3 (Figure 10). Each is made from a ring and a long pendant and all are impressively long, about 7 cm. The pendants themselves are quadripartite, consisting of a loop with the central part in the form of an amphora with a basket body, a coral bead and a double-segment base that is crowned with a cylinder. A simple wire, for threading the coral bead, runs between the loop and the base.

Figure 10. Silver and coral earrings from Tomb N1-3: 1) earring BE21-144-014-027_F473; 2) earring BE21-144-014-033_F631; 3) earring BE21-144-014-028_F572; 4) earring BE21-144-014-033_F606 (photographs by J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

Silver and coral earrings are a type of jewellery previously identified in Nobadian and Early Makurian élite tombs. Similarly constructed earring pendants made of silver and featuring a coral bead are, for example, known from the royal Nobadian cemeteries at Qustul and Ballaña (Emery and Kirwan 1938: Plate 41A: B.47-21, 53, B: Q.14-65, C: Q14-59 =JE 70361a,b, 7035?a,b, 70365a,b). A pair of silver hoop earrings with coral bead was also found in Grave 64 at cemetery E in Gammai (Bates and Dunham 1927: 59, Plates 38.2.D, D’; 68, Figure 37; Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, Cambridge/Peabody 24-24-50/B4037). Additionally, a gold and coral earring is recorded in Upper Nubia in an élite tomb at El-Zuma (Then-Obłuska 2021b).

Exact parallels are, unfortunately, hard to find, although one likely match exists with a pair of earrings from the élite cemetery at Qustul that is ascribed there to Tomb Q.14 (Emery and Kirwan 1938: 47, 193, Catalogue number 46, Plate 41C, tomb Q. 14-59). Unfortunately, however, these items, which were wrapped up in a coarse linen bundle along with other jewellery and beads, were a surface find (Emery and Kirwan 1938: 47, Q.14-59–65).

Bangles

Many fragments of elephant ivory bangles were also found in Tomb N1-3 (Figure 11, Table 1). Based on the preserved remains, these fragments made about ten to eleven bangles that were between 5 and 9 cm in inner diameter, 7–8.6 mm high and 2.7–4.1 mm thick. So far, only three bone (i.e. not ivory) finger rings have been reported from Qustul (Emery and Kirwan 1938: Tomb Q.2-100), but this is uncertain as they remain illustrated. Ivory bangles are, however, known from Coptic Egypt, being illustrated from the fourth- to seventh-century sites of Al-Bagawat, Kharga (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/MET 31.8.12), and Fag el-Gamous, Fayum (Smith et al. 2020: Figure 8.7). Interestingly, a high-status woman, known as the Ivory Bangle Lady, who is thought likely to be of North African descent and whose remains date to the second half of the fourth century, was found with jet and elephant ivory bracelets at York in Roman Britain (Leach et al. 2010; Yorkshire Museum n.d.: YORYM: H10.2-H10.4).

Figure 11. Examples of ivory bangle remains from Tomb N1-3: 1) BE21-144-014-033_F596-597; 2) BE21-144-014-027_F389-399, 460-470, 469-497 (photographs by J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

Ornaments from Tomb N2-1

Tomb N2-1 yielded beads and pendants made of mollusc shell, faience and glass (Table 1). The first of these materials comprises items of Red Sea origin identifiable as Cypraea annulus (Figure 12:1). Shells of this species are fairly well recognised at Northeast African coastal and desert sites, as well as in Lower and Upper Nubian tombs, and were perforated by removing the convex part of the body, resulting in a large hole (Then-Obłuska 2018, 2021b: 7).

Figure 12. Beads from Tomb N2-1: 1) Cypraea sp. mollusc shell fragment BE21-44-026A-46A; 2) faience bead BE21-044-004-061; 3) faience bead BE21-044-012-025; 4) glazed steatite bead fragment BE21-044-013-033; 5) drawn and segmented glass beads BE21-044-006-060_F1893; 6) drawn and rounded glass beads BE21-044-006-060; 7) glass tear-drop pendant BE21-044-006-056A; 8) glass tear-drop pendant BE21-044-006-060 (photographs by J. Then-Obłuska and the Berenike Project).

A fragment of glazed steatite bead and a few faience beads in the form of blue rings and long cylinders were also present (Figure 12: 2–4). Although closely resembling in shape and material beads of an earlier, i.e. Ptolemaic or Early Roman date, we know that the latter were themselves often re-used, as attested by finds from Blemmyan graves in Bab Kalabsha (OIM E42043E).

Drawn and segmented glass beads, now in a corroded condition, were produced from East Mediterranean (Egyptian or Levantine) glass (Figure 12: 5). Small drawn glass tubes were heated and then segmented by rolling on open moulds with grooved or crenelated surfaces. The segmented tubes were then cut or snapped at intervals to produce single- or multiple-segment beads. Their ends were either left sharp or heat-finished. Moulds used for segmenting the drawn glass tubes have been recovered in Early Roman and Late Roman/Early Byzantine Alexandria (Rodziewicz 1984: 146–159, 241–242, Figures 265–266, Plate 72, Nos 359–366, dating to the end of the fifth/sixth centuries; Kucharczyk 2011: 63–64, Figure 8:1, dating to the second/third centuries). Chemical compositional analysis of the Nubian samples confirms the Egyptian provenance of their glass (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019a, 2019b; Then-Obłuska and Dussubieux 2021, 2023). Two drawn and rounded green glass beads, on the other hand, are of South Indian/Sri Lankan origin (Figure 12:6) and belong to the type discussed above from Tomb N1-3).

Finally, the blue tear-drop glass pendants in Tomb N2-1 (Figure 12:7–8) are diagnostically Lower Nubian types and, according to recent studies, produced locally, although from imported, mainly Levantine, glass (Then-Obłuska and Dussubieux 2023). This assumption seems to be further confirmed by the presence of pendants of this type in the Nobadian bead workshop at Serra East (Then-Obłuska 2018: Figures 2–3).

Results and discussion

Contextual attribution

Using beads and other ornaments as grave offerings in Nubian and Blemmyan tombs appears to have been a relatively common practice (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019b: 16). Depositing precious ornaments in a leather bag or wrapped up in a linen bundle, as at the royal cemetery of Qustul, rather than arranging them to adorn the dead may, in fact, have been an intentional procedure (instead of reflecting the contents of plunderers’ containers) (Emery and Kirwan 1938: 47, Tomb Q.14). In Late Antiquity Nubia, strings of beads were used to decorate leather scabbards (Emery and Kirwan 1938: Plate 49; Lenoble 2004: Catalogue number 131), but they have also been found placed inside wooden boxes (Williams 1991: 335, Figure 161d, Plate 83 h), basketry boxes (Emery and Kirwan 1938: Plate 107.D), a wooden chest in a royal tomb (Emery and Kirwan 1938: 212, Catalogue number 159), leather containers with metal fittings (Bates and Dunham 1927: 37–38, Numbers 6, 15a–e, Plate LXVII), a linen bag (Strouhal 1984: 223, Plate 73, object P 3010) and leather bags or wraps (Pellicer Catalán and Llongueras Campañà 1965: 61–62, Figures 36:6, 17, Plate XIX:3; Säve-Söderbergh 1981: 38, object 19/1:15; Then-Obłuska 2018).

In contrast to these Blemmyan and Nubian examples, however, there are no preserved traces of a container for items of jewellery in the tombs at Berenike. Thus, although the ornaments from Tomb N1-3 discussed above come from a multiple burial and were found together placed on the chest of the uppermost body (Figure 1: 3), a position that suggests they were not items of individual personal adornment. They may therefore have been offerings to the deceased or things related to the burial ceremony.

Beadwork types

Based on sets of beads strung together or preserved on string fragments, we can assume that there were at least five strings of beads in Tomb N1-3: one of green drawn and rounded glass beads (Figure 6:1), a second of green faceted beads (Figure 6) and yet another of silver beads alternating with coral and blue glass ones (Figure 8). Large onyx and carnelian beads might have been threaded on separate strings (Figures 4 and 5) as similar arrangements are observed from Nubia (Emery and Kirwan 1938: Plates 45–48).

As the beads were discovered alongside jewellery in a location on a single body, we can only speculate as to their original function. In general, when found adorning the dead in Nubian and Blemmyan tombs beads and pendants take the form of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, armlets, anklets, belts and circlets (Griffith 1925; Emery and Kirwan 1938: 206, Catalogue number 120; Habachi 1967; Jacquet-Gordon and Bonnet 1971: 81, Figure 4 for bead adornments from the intact Tomb No. 72; Żurawski 2010: 211, Figure 42; Then-Obłuska 2014; Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019b: 16). However, they were also found sewn on to textiles or leather headbands, wristbands and garments (Williams 1991; Żurawski 2010: Figure 40; Longa 2011: 503). In Nubia and at Aksum Indian glass beads found in situ were parts of necklaces, bracelets and anklets (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019b; Then-Obłuska et al. 2022).

Social attribution

The Berenike ornaments reported here were most likely tomb offerings or ritual objects and the social status of the multiple individuals buried in Tomb N1-3 therefore remains uncertain. With that in mind, finds of comparable objects discovered outside Berenike nevertheless hint at some aspects of their social significance.

For example, besides being widely spread at non-élite cemeteries, the Indian/Sr-Lankan beads recovered at these Berenike tombs have also been recorded in Blemmyan, Nobadian and Early Makurian élite and royal tombs (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019a, 2019b; Then-Obłuska and Dussubieux 2021) as well as in broadly contemporary contexts in Merovingian Gaul (modern France/Belgium) (Pion and Gratuze 2016).

Moreover, although neither sex nor age bear obvious correlations with bead distribution in Nubia or at Aksum (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019b; Then-Obłuska et al. 2022), an intriguing gender-colour correlation is evident for these South Indian/Sri Lankan beads in both élite and non-élite graves. Specifically, while green beads are more often found with male individuals, large numbers of the orange ones seem to have been favoured by women (Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019b: Table 7.1; Then-Obłuska et al. 2022). Interestingly, the onyx beads deposited in the same Berenike context find parallels in male élite burials at Qustul and Ballaña (Emery and Kirwan 1938: Plate 47A, Qustul, Tomb Q. 3-88, Room 3, bead type 81, all the human remains in the tomb were those of young male adults; Pl. 46D, Tomb B. 110-27, Room 1, bead types 19, 36, 37, 84, 85, with a male adult). Additionally, faceted green glass beads of the kind found at Berenike in Tomb N1-3 have been recognised in the tomb of an adult male at Qustul (Williams 1991: 150, 401).

Exchange networks

The discovery of Indian/Sri Lankan glass and stone beads in tombs at Berenike and other coastal, desert and Nile Valley sites between the fourth and sixth centuries AD raises questions about the potential involvement of Eastern Desert and Nubian peoples in the distribution of imported goods in Northeast Africa during Late Antiquity (Figure 2) (Then-Obłuska 2017, 2018, 2021a; Then-Obłuska and Wagner 2019a, 2019b; Then-Obłuska and Dussubieux 2021).

The Blemmyes are known from written sources to also have resided at Berenike (Ast and Rądkowska 2020) and to have operated the land routes connecting the Eastern Desert to the Mediterranean and the Nubian kingdoms of Nobadia, Makuria and Alwa (Alodia). The Historia Augusta reports that in the second half of the third century a certain Firmus, a wealthy merchant of Alexandria, made his money in the Red Sea ‘Indian trade’, probably thanks to his connections with them (Power 2012: 24). The Blemmyes may also have formed an alliance with the Meroitic kingdom of Kush to negotiate with the Roman Empire, as suggested by their joint embassy to Constantine in 336 (Abinnaeus et al. 1962; P. Abinn.1, CPL 265; Eide 1994: 295, 1083). Subsequently, Olympiodorus of Thebes reports that Mons Smaragdus, a region of the Eastern Desert in which beryl and emeralds were mined, was controlled by the Blemmyes at the end of the fourth century, while in the sixth century Cosmas Indicopleustes noted that they supplied the ‘Ethiopians’ with emeralds for trading with India (Dijkstra 2005: 48). The extent of the Blemmyes’ control of the Eastern Desert — and thus of the flow of people and goods moving through it — is well exemplified in the story recorded by John of Ephesus of Bishop Longinus’s journey to bring Christianity to Alwa in 580 (Vantini 1975). Beyond these textual sources, the likely presence of the Blemmyes in the region under discussion is marked by their handmade pottery (Eastern Desert Ware), traces of which can be found as far as Berenike, Marsa Nakari and Quseir to its north and the Aksum region in Ethiopia far to its south (Barnard 2006, 2008; Barnard and Magid 2006; Manzo 2014; Gwiazda et al. 2024). Cuboid altars and incense burners attributed to Eastern Desert peoples are known from tombs in the Nile Valley, as well as at and near Berenike (Meyer 2017; Gwiazda et al. 2024).

Finally, the involvement of a second group, the Nobades, in distributing Indian imports along the Nile Valley may be inferred from a Coptic letter found at Qasr Ibrim and dated to c. 450 (Obłuski 2014). In it, a monk, Moses, residing at Philae in Egypt, addresses Tantani, the phylarchos (ruler) of Nobadia, noting the transport of pepper to Philae from Nubia, consistent with archaeological evidence for its presence at Berenike, Wadi Shenshef to its southwest and Qasr Ibrim in Nobadia itself (Cappers 1998, 2006; Barnard 2009).

Conclusions

Bead and jewellery assemblages recovered from the fourth/fifth-century Tombs N1-3 and N2-1 at Berenike were deposited in graves that contained multiple burials. Their identification can enhance our knowledge of the transcultural, overland and overseas connections — whether direct or indirect — of those buried with them at this Red Sea coastal necropolis (Figure 13). While the coral is of Corallium rubrum and thus of Mediterranean origin, the majority of the glass and stone beads present were probably imported from South India/Sri Lanka or, as in the case of the tear-drop pendants, manufactured along the Nile in Nobadia but from imported glass. The remaining glass beads and the reused faience ones were most probably Egyptian in origin. The elephant ivory bangles found are not specific to Berenike, being also found in Late Antique Egypt and far beyond. Beyond the simple description of the objects and their origin, most of the ornament types from the Berenike tombs find close or exact parallels in specimens from fourth/fifth-century Blemmyan, Nobadian and Early Makurian cemeteries in the Nile Valley, while items of silver and coral jewellery find analogies solely in élite Nubian cemeteries. Further excavations at Berenike may provide more insights into the individual or ritual nature of the items of adornment deposited in graves there, along with the social status of those buried at this time on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

Figure 13. Map illustrating the provenance of ornaments from Berenike Tombs N1-3 and N2-1 (by J. Then-Obłuska, Sz. Maślak, and the Berenike Project).

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, under grant number 2021/43/D/HS3/00248. I thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper.

Additional information

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Joanna Then-Obłuska

Joanna Then-Obłuska is a researcher at the University of Warsaw and an Associate of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) of the University of Chicago, specialising in the archaeology of Northeast Africa. Since receiving her PhD in Archaeology from the Jagiellonian University in 2008, her interests have focused primarily on issues of society and trade, looking at ancient Sudanese and Egyptian beads and jewellery in terms of both material and bead-making techniques and exploring the economic role of bead imports in the Indian Ocean trade.