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A Falcon Shrine at the Port of Berenike (Red Sea Coast, Egypt)

October 2022 (126.4)

Field Report

A Falcon Shrine at the Port of Berenike (Red Sea Coast, Egypt)

During excavations at the Hellenistic-Roman port of Berenike (on the Red Sea coast of Egypt) in the winter of 2019, work in the so-called Northern Complex documented a religious space from the Late Roman period. The excavation of a portion of this space recorded material that, together with the architecture, suggests a ritual function associated with a falcon cult. This study examines the features of this edifice and the interpretation of the religious materials found in it and proposes a possible relationship with the Blemmyan population who lived in Berenike between the fourth and sixth centuries CE.

A Falcon Shrine at the Port of Berenike (Red Sea Coast, Egypt)
By Joan Oller Guzmán, David Fernández Abella, Vanesa Trevín Pita, Olaf E. Kaper, Rodney Ast, Marta Osypińska, and Steven E. Sidebotham
American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 126, No. 4 (October 2022), pp. 567-591
DOI: 10.1086/720806
© 2022 Archaeological Institute of America