India exported pets to ancient Africa and Europe — 2000 years ago

“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 antiquity 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 came from India.
The ancient port town of Berenice lies by the Red Sea, founded in the third century BCE by the Ptolemies, the last royal dynasty of Egypt. Around 30 BCE, the Romans overran the Nile, and Berenice became an important trading centre connecting Africa, Europe and India. It was the last outpost of the empire at the time. “It seems that among people sent to a remote outpost in inhospitable regions, far from civilisation, there was an extremely high demand for a substitute of close emotional relationships,” Prof Marta Osypińska told TOI. “No animal was killed. Each was buried with great care.”
A skeleton of a bonnet macaque, native to southwestern India, found at the burial site (Photo: Marta Osypińska)
By the 3rd century CE, the city had died, abandoned after the collapse of the Roman Empire. In the 19th century, the ruins were recognised and another century later, in 1994, excavations began and several archaeologists from across the US and Europe have been studying the site since. Osypińska, a Polish archaeozoologist, has been going back to Berenice every “research season” for the past 12 years. “Always in winter, when the working conditions in the desert are tolerable. We live in large tents. We have to bring everything, including drinking water,” she said. A day at the excavation site begins at 6.30am, when the Ababda nomads, hired as workers, come in. Field work is over by 3pm, dinner by 6pm, after which power generators kick in. Data is then manually recorded, flipping through photographs taken over the entire day. For finds that are unique in some way, 3D images are created.
Last month’s find, tracing animal trade routes to India, was built on a discovery made eight years ago. “When I was invited in 2008, my task was to develop thousands of very small animal bone fragments excavated here. It is a very tedious and sometimes quite boring process,” said Osypińska. “But since 2012, we have been exploring a unique object in Berenice, a cemetery of animals for companionship.” 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, with two large shells, one of them a haliotis from the Indian Ocean, two amphorae bottoms, a cloth rag and a piglet.
The animal cemetery excavation at port town of Berenice in Egypt (Photo: Marta Osypińska)
“Initially, we assumed the monkeys were local vervets-grivets 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,” Osypińska said. So, they were similar to African vervets, but somehow different. “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, Osypińska’s team had also found evidence of cats imported from India. “Based on the DNA, we identified a single Asiatic wildcat among the bones of local domestic cats in Berenice. It was a big surprise for us … It seems to me that importing live animals from India has been very important to Europeans since antiquity. So far, it appeared that it concerned herds of large livestock, driven on land roads. Unexpectedly, it turned out small animals were taken aboard merchant ships, most likely as companion animals.”
This changes, first, the science and history of what is known about animal trade in the region. “Apart from indirect data (DNA of modern animal varieties in Africa and their breeding), there were no archaeozoological data known to me that would support the hypothesis that in antiquity, animals were imported from India to Africa and Europe.” So far, the Berenice researchers do not know of any text that mentions small animal trade from India. So, each such discovery expands our understanding of the ancient world.
Research on the Berenice animal cemetery has led to the creation of the largest database of ancient cats, their diet, diseases and care. “We also have a unique collection of data on ancient dog varieties: from large to toy dogs. Extremely important scientific information was the discovery of macaques — animals brought from very far away in order to meet the demand for the company of exotic companions. This opens up completely new perspectives in research into trade, trade in live animals and human motivations.”
That creates the possibility of imagining the human mind in antiquity. “We can see people from 2,000 years ago reflect our own emotions and relationship with animals,” Osypińska said. “It seems that cats, dogs and monkeys helped to survive the long stay away from home. Exotic, probably very expensive, but also unique animals, such as macaques, could not only be a source of joy but also prestige. Let us remind you that rhesus monkeys in particular are among the most intelligent animals. My stay in India and Nepal showed me that you can watch them for hours.”
The researchers at the site, who have been publishing a series of papers about their discoveries over the years, have written another paper while Osypińska has started work on a monograph about the animals of ancient Berenice. “Perhaps it is only a matter of time until we find some other papyrus or ostracon talking about monkeys from India. Perhaps there is already such a text, but it was incomprehensible to researchers and our discoveries will allow us to read it anew.”