The early Roman animal cemetery in Berenike (Red Sea, Egypt): estimating its range (fieldwork in 2023–2025)

Research at the companion animal cemetery in Berenike is currently focused on determining its spatial extent and the number of burials. To this end, the team has explored new sections of the northern part of the cemetery. Ongoing analyses of the material have shed light on the scale and precise chronology of the practice of burying cats, dogs, and monkeys within the Roman cultural sphere on the Egyptian Red Sea coast. In the 1st/2nd centuries CE, burials were concentrated within a radius of approximately 15–20 m of a masonry structure, tentatively interpreted as either a chapel or an open altar. Ritual practices such as the offering of sacrificial calves took place in this area in the mid-1st century. Based on the data currently available, it is estimated that a few thousand companion animals were buried in this cemetery, implying a rate of no more than 50 animals per year when the total is divided by the assumed duration of the practice, that is, about 100 years. Contextual data, as well as the discovery of exceptional glass and ceramic vessels, point to a close link between the animal burials, often involving animals imported from the Indian subcontinent, and the Roman element of Berenike society, comprising merchants, officials, and army officers.