Myos hormos

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Myos Hormos ("shell port") was a Ptolemaic port on the Red Sea . He is mentioned by Strabon ( Geographica 16, 4, 5) and in the Periplus Maris Erythraei (40-70 AD ) , among others . After that, viewed from the north, it was the first port on the African side and was 1,800 stadia away from Berenike . According to Strabo ( Geographica 17, 1, 45) there were numerous fortifications between Myos Hormos and Koptos , in which the ships could take in water ( Hydreumata ).

Even in Roman times, Myos Hormos remained one of the most important ports on the Red Sea, during the time of Strabos 120 ships sailed from here to India every year. However, it was later surpassed in importance by Berenike, located further south.

Routes of the periplus ; his trade route description ( Roman-Indian relations ) after the Periplus Maris Erythraei around the middle of the 1st century

ID

Myos Hormos has already been equated with Abu Sha'ar, Ras Abu Soma and Safaga . Most likely, however, the identification with Qusair al-qadim, ie "Old Qusair", which is about 6 km north of today's (New) Qusair and was as important in the High Middle Ages as Myos Hormos was once.

Peacock proposed this equation in 1993 because of the topography recognizable in aerial photographs, which corresponded to the ancient descriptions of Myos Hormos. In 1999 excavations began in the Roman port, where a papyrus from March 25, 93 AD was finally found, which named "Myos Hormos on the Erythrean Sea " and thus presumably names the site itself.

literature

  • Donald S. Whitcomb, Janet H. Johnson (eds.): Quseir al-Qadim 1980: Preliminary report (= American Research Center in Egypt. Reports. Vol. 7). Undena Publications, Malibu (CA) 1982, ISBN 0-89003-112-6 .
  • David Peacock: The site of Myos Hormos: the view from space. In: Journal of Roman archeology Vol. 6, 1993, pp. 226-232.
  • David Peacock, Lucy Blue (eds.): Myos Hormos - Quseir al-Qadim: Roman and Islamic Ports on the Red Sea 1: The Survey and Report on the Excavations 1999-2003. Oxbow Books, Oxford 2006. ISBN 1-84217-203-4
  • David Peacock, Lucy Blue (eds.): Myos Hormos - Quseir al-Qadim: Roman and Islamic Ports on the Red Sea 2: Finds from the Excavations 1999-2003 (= University of Southampton Series in Archeology 6, BAR International Series 2286) . Archaeopress, Oxford 2011. ISBN 9781407308630

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Myos Hormos - Quseir al-Qadim, Roman and Islamic ports on the Red Sea, volume 2: Finds from the excavations 1999-2003 , ePrints Soton
  2. ^ Stephanie Moser et al .: Transforming Archeology through practice: Strategies for collaborative Archeology and the Community Archeology Project at Quseir, Egypt. In: World Archeology Vol. 34, 2002, pp. 220-248.

Coordinates: 26 ° 9 '  N , 34 ° 14'  E