Slightly off-topic: Safeguarding and Preserving Cultural Heritage in Eritrea

Shaebia (Mansour Nouredin)

The ancient port of Adulis holds a phenomenal amount of information about the trade system of this part of the ancient world between 500 BC and 700 AD as well as important insights into the economy of the littoral and highlands of Eritrea. Adulis exerted great influence over the cultural area of the Southern Red Sea in the spheres of architecture town planning and landscaping.

The site of Adulis is particularly relevant to a better understanding of the development of the Red Sea interchange circuit since 2nd millennium BC and the problem of the location of the Land of Punt, from which the Egyptians imported frankincense, gold, ebony etc. As a harbor, it was connecting the hinterland with ancient Egypt, Roman, Greek empires and China through the Red Sea. As documented in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, an ancient guide of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, commodities imported into this port were a variety of important materials including, unfurled cloths, arsinoitic robes, cloaks, linen, cooking pots, wine and garments, fabrics and glassware among others.