Revan: Fascinating site they’re excavating in Egypt on the Red Sea.

Fascinating site they’re excavating in Egypt on the Red Sea.

A Buried Ancient Egyptian Port Reveals the Hidden Connections Between Distant Civilizationsapple.news At the site of Berenike, in the desert sands along the Red Sea, archaeologists are uncovering wondrous new finds that challenge old ideas about the makings of the modern world

This is so cool

Exciting and interesting! Reminds me of the truism: the most interesting and fecund area is always the zone between two ecosystems.

Eastern Hellenic syncretism is so neat

Me: Which religion do you follow? Roman sea merchant based out of Egypt: Yes.

If I'd actually gone into archaeology instead of just dabbling in undergrad, this is definitely what I would have studied. The topic of connections between civilizations & how tenuous they are feels like one of the most important of our time

The brief but clearly popular period of Hellenistic Buddhism is really fascinating. A lot of people try and simplify it's dying-off as "Oh, the Christians suppressed it", but TMK its popularity died off before Christians were even close to becoming a dominant religion.

I suspect it was a "fad" religion like many other mystery cults at the time- a "brief" (50 years or so) period of popularity followed by most believers joining another sect until there were only a few cities that had entrenched traditions.

From this article it sounds like there was also a (small) Indian merchant class present in the Empire but they likely disappeared as the sea trade dried up

at that time, Buddhism was still a monastic religion supported by donors. Monks left family and caste which reduced the mass appeal. Later developments towards a mire inclusive goal, i.e. save all sentient beings vs escape the whirlpool of Samsara, contributed to a wider audience 🧐

That seems like a fair take on it.

there is a Wikipedia article "Berenike Buddha" for thos who dont do Apple news😘

Source is the Smithsonian, not Apple: www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hidd...

A Buried Ancient Egyptian Port Reveals the Hidden Connections Between Distant Civilizationswww.smithsonianmag.com At the site of Berenike, in the desert sands along the Red Sea, archaeologists are uncovering wondrous new finds that challenge old ideas about the makings of the modern world

link on my phone goes to Apple News🤷🏼‍♀️

I did use the Apple News link to the Smithsonian article

right. but some people dont use Apple News. that's what my Wikipedia link said.

I may not be the first person in human history to exclaim "Guanyin and Ma'at!" when things go wrong.

Good to see that others are reading Smithsonian magazine too. I literally just finished it

At least it was quality click-bait and easy to find the original source. I'm still not 100% those car-sized crabs in Spain are fake.

I just thought about car-sized crab legs..😬

"I'm ordering from Popeye's a bucket of those new foot-long cajun-fried crab legs." "Don't forget the extra gallon of melted spicy-butter sauce. They never include enough."

🤣🤣 mine would be a whole tin of Old Bay

Siddartha in a Sunhat

Fusion Buddha

And it's got the halo of sun rays found on statues of Helios and later, Jesus and the Statue of Liberty

syncretism mentioned!

This is super cool

Wow!

Reminds me of the Showgirls movie poster

The Buddha! Buddhism spread far and wide huh. From Nepal to India to China to Japan, etc.

Buddha on vacation

That would be the Ddha.

*Blinks* Wow.

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