[INDOLOGY] Spectacular finds

Tue Dec 2 20:18:32 UTC 2025

It reminds me the beautiful Indian sculpture found in Pompéi, seen last week in the MANNapoli.

Envoyé à partir de Outlook pour iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
________________________________
De : INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> de la part de Lavanya Vemsani via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
Envoyé : Tuesday, December 2, 2025 2:11:04 PM
À : Indology List <INDOLOGY at list.indology.info>
Cc : Indology List <indology at list.indology.info>
Objet : Re: [INDOLOGY] Spectacular finds

This indeed is remarkable. Thanks for sharing it. This helps understand Indo-Roman trade and the Egyptian role in depth.
Thank you
Lavanya
Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 2, 2025, at 6:22 AM, Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

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<http://www.openphilology.eu/>
copies of my publications may be found at
https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20251202/bfa907e0/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_8640.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2136310 bytes
Desc: IMG_8640.jpeg
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20251202/bfa907e0/attachment.jpeg>