A team of Polish and American researchers has discovered a two-foot-tall stone Buddha statue in the ruins of the temple of Berenice, an ancient port city on the Red Sea coast in southeastern Egypt. The partially recovered statue probably dates back to the 2nd century, testifying to Indian influence and trade relations with the ancient Roman Empire via Egypt.
While Berenice’s location made it a hub for West and South Asian trade under the Roman Empire, the port was briefly abandoned at some point during the 2nd century. due to a volcanic eruption, then again in the 6th century, after which it filled with sediment and was mostly inaccessible. According A declaration from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the excavation project that yielded the statue has been ongoing at the abandoned port since 1994.
Dr Marius Goyazda, a Polish researcher involved in the archaeological mission, said the statue was made of stone which may have been quarried from an area below Istanbul, and that the Buddha figure may have been carved in Berenice. and dedicated to the temple by wealthy Indian merchants. William Dalrymple first reported in the New York Review last week that the recovered statue was carved from “the finest Mediterranean marble in a part Indo-Gandharian, part Roman-Egyptian style”, noting that participating archaeologists presumed the sculpture was carved in Alexandria due of the Buddha’s presentation of “tortellini-like” curls and the radiating sunburst pattern behind his head.
The Kingdom of Gandhara, occupying what is now northwestern Pakistan between 1500 BCE and 1000 CE, is noted for its Greco-Roman and South Asian-Buddhist influences exhibited through faith, l art and architecture. Gandharian art is known for his reappropriation of ancient Roman aesthetics folded into Buddhist iconography.
Steven Sidebotham, a participating researcher and professor at the University of Delaware, said the mission also uncovered a Hindi inscription from the time of Roman Emperor Philip the Arab (249-244 BCE) as well as two Satavahana coins. kingdom that was established in the Indian subcontinent at the end of the 2nd century BCE. Since 1994, The Sidebotham Excavations at Berenice unearthed Indian-made pottery, textiles, ships’ sails and beads, and even 17 pounds of black peppercorns strictly endemic to southwestern India at the time.
As the Berenice excavations continue to expose the artifacts of a bustling commercial industry, Sidebotham told the University of Delaware Research Magazine that there is “probably enough work for four or five generations of archaeologists”. The teacher said Hyperallergic that a statement regarding the discovery of the Buddha statue is forthcoming.
