Remains left by a falcon cult at a temple in Berenike in southeastern Egypt are helping shed light on a nomadic group, according to a new field report published in the American Journal of Archaeology.

The nomads, called the Blemmyes, were originally from the Nubian region but expanded their control to much of Egypt’s Eastern desert from the fourth to sixth centuries CE.

Berenike was a Red Sea harbor founded by Ptolomy II Philadelphus in the third century BCE and continued to operate through the Roman and Byzantine periods until it was abandoned in the sixth century.

The Blemmyes held at least partial control over the harbor in the fifth and sixth centuries CE.

The temple studied in the field report contained a pedestal surrounded by the remains of fourteen beheaded falcons. Another falcon with its head attached was found buried in the corner of the room. Falcon eggshells were also found at the site. This is the first time researchers have discovered falcons and eggs buried within a temple in a group.

Additional animal remains found at the site also showed signs of having been decapitated. None of the remains were mummified.

A stele at the site may help explain the shrine’s use

A stele featuring Egyptian iconography alongside Greek text was found at the site. The top of the stele features a winged sun desk connected to two cobras. The main feature of the stele depicts a figure of a pharaoh wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt offering a round object to three gods: Harpokrates of Koptos, a god with a falcon’s head and a goddess wearing a Hathor crown. In between Harpokrates and the falcon god is an obelisk with a human head at its base.

It is unclear who the god and goddess are as the symbolism depicting them is applicable to a number of different gods.

A similar carving was found in a temple in Edfu, with the two gods being more clearly depicted as the god Khonsu of Edfu and the goddess Nekhbet. The offering in that carving is a lunar disk combined with a crescent.

Additionally, a statue of Khonsu-Shu depicting the god as a crocodile with a falcon head was found at the temple of Isis in Berenike, suggesting that Khonsu played a role in the local temple among the deities surrounding Isis.

The archaeologists suggested based on the context and similar carvings that the stele is depicting a king offering a lunar-disk crown. The obelisk is likely a shrine for the body of Re-Osiris, represented by his head, and the lunar god Khonsu-Shu is assigned to the obelisk to protect it.

The goddess in the stele is likely Hathor or Isis, as Hathor is the partner goddess of Khonsu, but Isis is Harpokrates’ mother.

The Greek inscription on the bottom part of the stele reads: “It is improper to boil a head in here.”

The inscription warns the reader not to engage in what is considered a profane activity, boiling or cooking a head within the shrine.

A large Greek lintel inscription on the entrance to a shrine in the complex referred to the Blemmyan king Isemne and recorded the name of the interpreter who dedicated the edifice to Isis and Serapis. The inscription was likely carved in the late fourth or early fifth century CE.

What was the site used for?

The archaeologists proposed that the rooms excavated at the site served as a small temple for an Egyptian cult that was eventually adapted by the Blemmyes to their own system of beliefs.

The shrine was likely first created in the Early Roman period, although the relevant layers of the room from that period have not yet been excavated. The temple then developed in two further stages between the third and fourth century CE and in the fifth century CE.

The falcon bodies found at the site were dated to around the fourth and fifth century CE when a cult for Isis and Serapis was still worshipping at the site and Blemmyes were using the site as well.

What were the Blemmyes doing at the shrine?

While not much is known about the religious beliefs and practices of the Blemmyes, the archaeologists theorized that the new finds at the Berenike shrine could show that they respected Egyptian tradition and developed cultic practices offering falcons to the Egyptian god Khonsu, which was not done by Egyptians.

The field report was written by the Sikait Project research team, directed by Professor Joan Oller Guzmán from the Department of Antiquity and Middle Age Studies at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.

The site was excavated by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology and the University of Delaware.