Papyruses containing lists of Roman centurions stationed in Egypt discovered by Polish archaeologists

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Reported by Arkeonews:

Papyruses with lists of Roman centurions stationed in Egypt were found by Polish archaeologists in Berenike. These unique documents were found along with, among other things, pottery from Italy, Roman coins, and a special coat buckle in what may be the remains of a centurion’s office.

Berenike, located on the Red Sea, is an ancient port built by Emperor Tiberius shortly after the Roman Empire annexed Egypt. Archaeologists have suspected for years that a military unit was also stationed at Berenike. – It is very likely that these were soldiers of the Third Legion of Cyrenaica, who were famous, for example, for stopping the expansion of Meroe in Nubia and pacifying the uprising in Jerusalem in 70.

“For Egyptologists and other scholars of antiquity, this is an extremely rare and high-caliber discovery. There are very few sites from the Roman period in this part of the world. On the other hand, the rank of these discoveries is truly phenomenal,” says Professor Marta Osypińska from the Institute of Archeology of the University of Wrocław.

An international team led by Professor Marta Osypińska investigated a unique pet cemetery from the 1st and 2nd centuries in Berenike. Among the animal burials discovered there, archaeologists discovered an accumulation of exclusive ceramics from Italy, the Mediterranean, Africa and India, Roman coins, and a fibula, a coat pin that was characteristic and popular in Europe and was worn by legionnaires. The finds also included ostracons (fragments of texts on ceramics) and, above all, several papyri, which may be an invaluable source of knowledge about the ancient inhabitants of Berenike.

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