The Receivers of Berenike. New Inscriptions from the 2015 Season

Abstract

This article publishes two new Greek dedicatory inscriptions found during the 2015 excavation season at Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. The inscriptions offer new evidence for the office of Receiver (παραλήπτης), who was responsible for controlling the movement of goods through the harbor. In addition, a reference to Isis the nursing goddess, τροφός, provides the first explicit written evidence for Isis lactans, an iconographical type known from statuary and coins which depicts the goddess nursing her son Horos-Harpocrates. Moreover, mention of a secretary of the spice magazine (γραμματεὺς ἀποθήκης ἀπωματικῆς) points to the existence at the port of a storage facility for eastern spices.