A Gateway from the Eastern Mediterranean to India (The Red Sea in Antiquity)

Inter-disciplinary studies about the connections between India and the Mediterranean world in antiquity have been growing in the last few decades. These have followed a range of approaches. This book focuses on one segment of the maritime world geographically defined as the Red Sea and its surrounding areas. This regional perspective is necessary to understand the dynamics of exchange.

A large number of texts in Greek and Latin, papyri, ostraca, stone inscriptions, archaeological excavations, and surveys especially at sites such as Berenike and Myos Hormos provide a wealth of data on historical development in the Red Sea region.

Contributors to this volume are drawn from a variety of disciplines such as philology, Egyptology, African studies, archaeology, and ancient history and base their papers on recent discoveries as well as re-interpretation of textual sources.

Many of these papers first appeared in issues of the French journal Topoi but on account of their importance to the maritime history of the Indian Ocean, it was decided to publish them for a wider audience.

M.-F. Boussac is a Professor in Greek History at Lille University and Deputy Director of the French Mission at Mahasthangarh in Bangladesh. She is currently in charge of excavations at Taposiris-a Graeco-Roman site in Egypt, near Alexandria. She continues to edit Topoi devoted to the Mediterranean world and its linkages with Asia.

J-F. Salles is Research Director, French National Centre for Scientific Research, and is now in charge of the Jordan Branch of the French Institute for Near East (IFPO, Amman). He was Director of Maison de ('Orient Mediterranean, Lyon until 1999 and in-charge of the French Mission at Mahasthangarh in Bangladesh until December 2004. He has specialized in the archaeology of the Gulf, especially from the mid-first millennium BC to the mid-first millennium AD. His publications include excavation reports on archaeological sites in the Gulf, as also contributions to major international journals.