About ancient seafarers

It never ceases to amaze me how far and wide ships in antiquity could travel. Those seafarers must have been very adventurous and determined to sail to unknown destinations. 

We are far more familiar with men like Vasco de Gama or Christopher Columbus discovering faraway lands than Egyptians leaving their hieroglyphs in Australia (The Gosford Glyphs in New South Wales). But for now, let us stay a little closer to home and trace some of the trade routes beyond the Mediterranean (see: The flooded remains of Kekova Island), skirting the southeastern coast of Africa, the southern part of the Arabic peninsula, and Southeast Asia. 

During his reign, Ptolemy II Philadelphus (283 to 246 BC) founded the port of Berenice or Baranis, named after his mother, Berenice I, on the west coast of the Red Sea. Over time, this city became an important trading center that was active along the east coast of Africa, Arabia, and faraway India (see: Link between Egypt and Gandhara under Ptolemy Philadelphus). 

A similar itinerary may have already existed in the days of Darius I, who built a canal between 522 and 486 BC that connected the Nile with the Red Sea (see: The Canal of the Pharaohs, the Suez Canal of antiquity). The foundation stone to mark the event was discovered in 1866 when the modern Suez canal was constructed.

As mentioned briefly in the present post, the trading activities are based on the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written by a Greek merchant from Alexandria between 40 and 55 AD. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea has been discussed in detail by James Hancock in an article published in the World History Encyclopedia, which highlights the many trade routes and harbors used. The merchant’s diary is the earliest comprehensive insight into this extensive travel web. 

Once Egypt fell into Roman hands in 30 BC, trade through the ports of the Red Sea increased dramatically. The principal turnover harbors were Berenice and Myos Hormos, where the goods arrived on camel caravans from deeper inland. The ships unloaded their cargo in these same ports from where other caravans brought the incoming goods to Roman Alexandria on their return. 

Ships heading for Africa or India, known to leave between July and September, were steered through the middle of the Red Sea to avoid the dangerous coastline. Those heading for Africa passed the Horn of Africa and hugged the coast south to Rapta, near modern Dar es Salaam. This voyage took about two years to complete. The trade involved Egyptian linen, wine, glass, and metal artifacts to be exchanged for African ivory, tortoiseshell, myrrh, and frankincense. Thanks to the local traders doing business with India, the merchants could find cinnamon, Indian fabric, and fine muslin. 

[Picture from World History. PHGCPM (CC BY-SA)]

The ships bound for India stopped at the harbor of Aden and then at Qana on the southern end of the Arabic peninsula (today’s Yemen), where they took advantage of the monsoon winds to sail across the Indian Ocean to India. Barbaricum was their first harbor near modern Karachi on the Indus River. Here, they unloaded their cargo of Egyptian linen, wine, glass vessels, silver and gold plates, frankincense, coral, and topaz. In exchange, they loaded cotton fabric, silk yarn, turquoise, lapis lazuli, indigo, nard (a kind of spikenard), and other herbs like costus and lyceum. As the Romans’ confidence grew, the sailors ventured further south to Muziris on the Malabar Coast and hence to Sri Lanka. The Tamils of the island traded their pepper for gold. Black pepper seemed very popular as it constituted about three-quarters of the homebound cargo! The mainland Indians gladly offered ivory and pearls, whereas silk and semi-precious stones were brought in from as far as the Valley of the Ganges and the Himalayas. 

It is astonishing how all this knowledge and trade faded away in the Middle Ages when men like Vasco da Gama and other intrepid seafarers had to rediscover it.