Egypt- India relations

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History

Animal imports from India: c. A.D. 1

Chandrima Banerjee, September 18, 2020: The Times of India

“Don’t worry about the cats. Someone has been paid to look after them.” It seems like an odd message to find on a 2,000-year-old ceramic fragment, an ostracon, at Berenice in Egypt. The imagination of animals in antiquity is often grounded in two extremes — worshipped as abstract divine entities or enslaved as utilitarian creatures. But the relationship between animals and people in history may have been far more complex. Owners cared deeply about the animals that kept them company. And last month, researchers found that many of these animals went from India to ancient Africa and Europe two millennia ago.

The find, tracing animal trade routes from ancient Egypt to India, was built on a discovery made eight years ago. “Since 2012, we have been exploring a unique object in Berenice, a cemetery of animals for companionship,” Prof Marta Osypin ska, a Polish archaeozoologist, told TOI. That year, they discovered two monkey burials — young individuals, covered with a woollen cloth, like a child’s blanket. The following year, they found more. “The monkey was lying on its side, with hands at its face, like a sleeping baby.” The only one with burial furniture was that of a young bonnet macaque.

“Initially, we assumed the monkeys were local vervetsgrivets living in Africa. They are depicted in Egyptian art as animals kept on leashes. However, we were concerned that we were clearly dealing with two species: smaller and slightly larger,” Osypin ska said. “It was only during a recent trip to India that I saw rhesus monkeys and their relationship with humans. With 3D scans of monkey skulls from Berenice — Egyptian law doesn’t allow artifacts to be taken outside the country — and comparisons with reference specimens in Delhi, we realised these were Asian, not African monkeys.”

The remains, it turned out, were those of royal rhesus macaques from western and northern subcontinent and bonnet macaques from southwestern India. The 16 monkeys had died young, perhaps unable to acclimatise to the salty desert. “We know dogs and cats were fed with fish. However, fresh fruits (for monkeys) would have been a problem.” Two years ago, Osypin - ska’s team found evidence of cats imported from India.