Crossing non-existing borders: Sasanian material culture in the Red Sea and South Arabia

The influential Periplus Maris Erythraei, a cornerstone of the modern Indo-Roman trade paradigm, omits the Persian Gulf from its description of the maritime route to India. The deeply rooted belief that no regular exchange occurred between the Roman coasts of the Red Sea and the Sasanian Empire is based on this premise. Consequently, scholars, especially pottery specialists, have rarely explored the mutual exchange of material culture between the two regions. This study seeks to collect all available data on Sasanian pottery and other categories of archaeological evidence indicating Sasanian influence in the Red Sea and thereby to reassess the old paradigm. Recent excavations at multiple sites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, along with material evidence from other well-integrated mercantile sites in the Late Antique Red Sea region, have provided a sufficiently large sample size to rethink and revise the classical approach. This allows for a complete revision of the history of contact between the Red Sea and the Gulf between the fourth and early seventh centuries AD.