[INDOLOGY] Spectacular finds

[Matthew Kapstein]

Thanks for sharing this, Jonathan,

It is indeed spectacular. But in the light of all else we know of Egypt-India connections over the long term, it does fit in an established context and seems spectacular in part for the remarkable confirmation it offers of relations formed on the ancient routes joining India to ancient Baveru and beyond.

Matthew

Matthew T. Kapstein
Professor emeritus
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL Research University, Paris

Associate
The University of Chicago Divinity School

Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

https://ephe.academia.edu/MatthewKapstein

https://vajrabookshop.com/product/the-life-and-work-of-auleshi/

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501716218/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-i/#bookTabs=1

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501771255/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-ii/#bookTabs=1

https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/60949

Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email.

On Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 at 10:16 AM, Jonathan Silk via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> I would like to bring to your attention what I believe to be the first scientific publication of the results of recent research in Egypt. (Wait, don't stop reading!).
>
> Along with Egyptologists, our colleague Ingo Strauch has researched a find so remarkable that had it not been scienfitically excavated I think everyone --myself first of all--would have been certain it is fake.
>
> See now
>
> Steven E. Sidebotham, Rodney Ast, Marianne Bergmann, Shailendra Bhandare, Joanna K Rądkowska, Ingo Strauch, Szymon Popławski, Mariana Castro
>
> Indians in Roman Berenike
>
> Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 140, 2025, § 1–126
> https://doi.org/10.34780/n31wrw90
>
> the abstract:
>
> This paper discusses six Indian, for the most part locally produced artifacts excavated at Berenike, a Ptolemaic-Roman (third century B.C. – sixth century A.D.) Red Sea port in Egypt. The objects include a terracotta soldier, three stone Buddha statuettes, a stone stele with representations of Vrishni heroes, and a dedicatory stone inscription in Sanskrit and Greek from the sixth regnal year of the Roman emperor Philip the Arab (A.D. 248). These artifacts were recovered in 2001 and between 2018 and 2022. Excavations at Berenike began in 1994 and have documented thousands of artifacts and ecofacts that attest the port’s impressive commercial and cultural connections. Berenike was a critical link joining the wider Mediterranean basin with the north- western Indian Ocean. The provenance of recovered items ranges as far west as the Iberian Peninsula and northwestern Africa to as far east as the island of Java. Ongoing excavations have recorded numerous items from South Asia, especially from India. Those discussed here tie Berenike to India and present a highly unusual, in some cas- es unique insight into the Roman world’s connections with the Indian subcontinent.
>
> It is good to know that in these sometimes dark times we can now and then be amazed by surprising and glorious bursts of light.
>
> Jonathan
> --
>
> Prof. dr. J.A. Silk
>
> Professor in the study of Buddhism
> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
> Herta Mohr building 2.142
> Witte Singel 27A
> 2311 BG Leiden
> The Netherlands
>
> Guest Professor, PI of ERC-Project BEST
> Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
> Department für Asienstudien, Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie
> Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
> 80539 München
> Deutschland
> website: www.OpenPhilology.eu
> copies of my publications may be found at
> https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20251202/898395e3/attachment.htm>