RED SEA CONFERENCE – Program

June 5th

9h. Inscription

9.45-10h. Institutional welcome 

SESSION 1 Global and local in the Red Sea ports (chairs: J. Oller Guzmán/S.E. Sidebotham)

10-10.45h. Keynote lecture: S.E. Sidebotham “Celebrating 30 years of fieldwork at Berenike (Red Sea Coast), Egypt”.

10.45-11.10h. I. Zych, M. Gwiazda, M. Woźniak. “Community identities seen from the graves in Roman and post-Roman Berenike on the Red Sea (1st century BCE–6th century CE)”. 

11.10-11.40h. Coffee break

11.40 – 12.05h. M. Bajtler, J.K. Rądkowska. “Let me follow your path…paths? – cardo and decumanus in 4th-6th century Berenike”.

12.05-12.30h. S. Popławski. “Temple of Isis in Berenike, the building workshop”.

12.30-12.55h. M. Woźniak, S.E. Sidebotham. “Water Management in the Ptolemaic Port/City on the Red Sea Coast; Observations from Berenike of 3rd-2nd Century BC”.

12.55- 13.20h. M.A. Emam, A. Manzo. “Revisiting Mersa/Wadi Gawasis; The Shrine of Ankhw”.  

13.20-15.30h. Lunch (only speakers)

SESSION 2: The Red Sea network: global trade with local actors? (chairs: D. Nappo/A. Guimerà Martínez)

15.30-15.55h. R.C.A. Geerts, N. Bartos. “Berenike within East Africa: Early Ceramic Connections across the Eastern Desert and Upper Nile”.

15.55-16.20h. J.M. Oleksiak. “The Cooking Network – Unmasking economy of Eastern Desert”.

16.20-16.45h. S. Marion de Procé, C. Durand, R. Perrogon. “Local and global networks evidenced by the pottery assemblages from Farasan archipelago (1500 BCE – 10th cent. CE)”.

16.45-17.15h. Coffee break 

17.15-17.40h. Z. Barahona Mendieta. “Production and trade: new data on Upper Egyptian pottery production and distribution in the Egyptian eastern desert and the Red Sea.”

17.40-18.05h. L. Packard-Grams. “Local Cinnamon Consumption in 1st c. BCE Arsinoite Nome: new papyrological evidence of trade from the Red Sea to the Fayyum”.

19.30h. Welcome cocktail at the Museu Egipci of Barcelona (only speakers)

June 6th

SESSION 3: Extractive regions in the Red Sea: extracting for the locals/with the locals?  (chair: I. Zych)

9-9.25h. J. Oller Guzmán. “From global to local? The evolution of the emerald mining in the Smaragdos according to the evidence coming from Wadi Sikait”.

9.25-9.50h. S. García-Dils de la Vega. “Emeralds for the Empire. Evidence of Early Roman beryl mining in Wadi Sikait (Wadi el Gemal, Eastern Desert, Egypt)”.

9.50-10.15h. A. Mahmoud Ahmed. “The Archaeology Project in Sukari Gold mines 2022- 2023 (the story of Gold City Revival)”. 

10.15-10.40h. A. Habibi, J. Marchand, M. Crépy. “Gold exploitation in the Early Islamic period: Collating archaeological data and written sources to track the chaîne opératoire and the routes of gold in Egypt”.

10.40.-11.05h. A.A. Al-Zahrani. “Asham Mining settlement and it’s ports along the southwestern coast of the Red Sea”.

11.05.-11.35h. Coffee break

11.35-12.00h. Poster session

H. Ebeid Badry Mousa. “The first Ptolemies and the Red Sea area. Origins of Ptolemaic activity in East Africa in the light of numismatic finds at the sites of Egypt’s Eastern Desert”. 

A. Bosch. “Pattanam, breaking ground on classical gem industries in India”.

M. Cobb. “The Blemmyes, revenue collection and the octava: some speculative reflections”.

A. De la Torre García. “Zooarchaeology in the Horn: first approach to the medieval city of Fardowsa”.

D. Eguiluz, A. Molina, B. Burgaya, E. Martín. “Preserving the local, to become global:  six years of conservation interventions in Wadi Sikait”.

N. Hamed. “The Red Sea communities: potentials of connecting the past to the future in Egypt”.

M. Jornet. “The Piper Nigrum Route: the voyage of the Black Pepper through the ports of the Red Sea and the Egyptian Eastern Desert. A preliminary analysis”.

P. Osypiński. “The early Roman rubbish dumps (?) and animal cemetery in Berenike”.

L. Regincós. “Gods and goddesses in the Smaragdos mines”.

B. Rodríguez. “The Necropolis 277 Halfa Degheim pf A Group (Lower Nubia). Distribution and value of the work of men and women from the point of view of funerary archaeology”.

SESSION 4: Egypt, Horn of Africa, and India: local communities in a global world (chair: J. De Torres Rodríguez/C. Cornax Gómez)

12.00-12.25h. R. Ast. “Versifying Tyrants amid Diverse Ethnic Populations. Transitioning to Blemmye Berenike in the Third and Early Fourth Centuries”.

12.25-12.50h. P. Schneider. “Local communities in the Indian Ocean area, between dependence and agency”.

12.50-13.15h. A. González-Ruibal. “Sasanian and early Islamic trade in the Horn of Africa. A review of new evidence”.

13.15-15.30 h. Lunch (only speakers)

15.30-15.55h. I. Gerlach. “Cultural Interaction in the Ethiopian-Eritrean Highlands during the Early 1st Millennium BC: Exploring the Influence on the Local Population”. 

15.55-16.20h. M. Köster. “Local Communities of Pre-Aksumite Yeha, Ethiopia: Pottery Discoveries”. 

16.20-16.45h. C. Mancarella. “Importance of cattle in Ethio-Sabaean cult and ritual: What is Sabaean and what is local?”. 

16.45-17.10h. S. Japp.  “Foreign Impact on the Material Culture of Local Communities in South Arabia and the Northern Horn of Africa in the early 1st Millennium CE – Detectable, Extensive, or Nonexistent?”.   

17.10-17.40h. Coffee break

17.40-18.05h. H.T. Ziegler. “Hunting alongside Trogodytes. Critically reexamining sources for Ptolemaic elephant hunting”.

18.05-18.30h. A. Guimerà, P. De Soto. “Local Portrayals of Shenoute. A systematic GIS-based analysis of settlement developments in the landscape of Red Sea Monasteries.”.

Free evening

June 7th

SESSION 5: The Medieval Red Sea (chair: C. Zazzaro/A. González-Ruibal)

9-9.25h. J. De Torres Rodríguez. “Tracking states: the archaeology of Ifat and Barr Saʿd al-Dīn medieval sultanates in the eastern Horn of Africa”.

9.25-9.50h. J. Rouco Collazo. “Medieval urbanism in the Horn of Africa. An archaeological approach through three case studies”.

9.50-10.15h. C. Cornax Gómez. “The story the dead tell about the living: An archaeological study about the medieval funerary practices of the Horn of Africa”.

10.15-10.40h. A. Martínez d’Alòs-Moner, J. Miran. “Exploring Slavery in the Red Sea Region at a Transition Age. From an Open Sea to the Ottoman Kizildeniz”

10.40-11.10h. Coffee break

11.10-11.35h. D.A. Agius. “Quseir: Crossing the African and Arabian Red Sea. How does the placename relate to the maritime and topographical features of the site?”.

11.35-12.00h. S. Taha. “Vibrant religious traditions: the Red Sea region, Eastern Sudan”.

12.00-12.25h. R. Tokunaga. “People of the hinterland of al-Ḥawrāʾ to the early Islamic period in light of the epigraphic evidence”.

SESSION 6: Archaeology of the Red Sea: new findings and approaches (A. González-Ruibal /D. Agius) 

12.25-12.50h. C. Zazzaro, P. Simeon, J. Jansen van Rensburg, D. Carris, M. Alqarni. “The first underwater archaeological survey in the Red Sea area of NEOM, Saudi Arabia”.

12.50-13.15h. M. Osypińska. “Non-humans in Berenike society. Archaeozoological data for a discourse on ancient identity and value”.

13.15-15.30 h. Lunch (only speakers)

15.30-15.55h. A. Adam. “Six thousand years of occupation: results from the University of Khartoum Red Sea Project”.

15.55-16.20h. I. Lüllau Holthe, A. Mandon. “A social archaeology of abandonment: the case studies of AlUla and Luxor”.

16.20-17h. Final remarks and closure of the conference

20h. Closing diner