The Periplus Maris Erythraei is one of the most important pieces of textual evidence for understanding the key commodities, agents, and routes of the Indian Ocean trade during the early 1st millennium CE. It was written around the 1st-2nd c. CE in κοινή (koiné) Greek by an unknown author, it describes all the sites that merchants and mariners would have encountered following the order of navigation through the eastern and western trade routes in the Erythrean Sea, listing important information for each site. This text is particularly important for identifying the ports of trade and places of production of the Indian Ocean world in the early 1st millennium CE and has been, thus, the center of a long scholarly effort to situate geographically the sites listed.

This website hopes to be a valuable digital supplement to the study of the “Periplus Maris Erythraei.” By providing detailed information on each site and its attested or imagined location, accompanied by maps, this website creates digital experiences of the spatial information given in this 1st-2nd c. CE text. The desire is to create a centralized digital platform where one can engage with the text and the sites there described and the scholarship on such sites. Special attention is given specifically on the determination of space and place, as reflected within this text, especially as there are many attempts to identify the sites here described and often scholars are disagreed on their location and identification.

User’s guide

The user can engage with both a gazetteer built using a relational database by exploring the “Sites” page and with original maps constructed with QGIS of the places of the Periplus, by exploring the “Mapping the Periplus” page.

  • By navigating to “Sites” they will be directed to a list of topographical information for each site; by clicking on each site, the user will be presented with the following info:
    • Information extracted directly from the Periplus, prior to any scholarly interpretation, which includes: ancient toponym, the site’s place type, the route, the site next on route, the name of the ancient area, and the Ch. number from the Periplus;
    • Topographic information, which includes the longitude and latitude, the name of the modern identification and moder country as interpreted by a specific author. This section also states the location source;
    • The passage from the Periplus describing the site, in its full extent, from the Casson translation;
    • A bibliographical section, containing ancient and modern sources on the text.
  • By navigating to “Mapping the Periplus” the user will be presented with a series of original maps built with QGIS that engage with various spatial aspects of the sites described in the text. There will be also an interactive map, where the user may click on individual sites visualized on the map.

The Periplus Maris Erythraei

The “Periplus Maris Erythraei” (PME) is an account of maritime voyages through the Erythraean Sea, Persian Gulf, and Western Indian Ocean–all of which constitute part of the Indian Ocean World. The author remains unknown, yet Huntingford and Casson both hypothesized that it was written by a Greek speaking Egyptian merchant, possibly a trader or shipmaster wanting to record in a handbook the routes taken and the products exchanged on the coasts of the Eryhtraean Sea and Indian Ocean. This ethnic identification of the author is based primarily on the language of the text, for it was written in κοινή Greek. Dating is uncertain, yet it can be placed between late 1st c. CE and first half of 2nd c. CE. Four passages provide a terminus post quam of 95 CE and terminus ante quam of 130 CE. The text is to be inscribed within the literary tradition of the “peripli,” however, this text is much more than a traveler’s log, for it includes detailed information that would have been valuable to a trader and investor. As De Romanis theorizes, this text was probably meant for investors in long distance trade and was structured in way to inform and direct investors’ decision in financing this maritime enterprise (De Romanis, 2020: 106-07).

The text is divided in 66 short chapters, respectively dividable in four main sections based on geographical collocation: 1-18 Africa, 19-36 Arabia, 37-63 India, 64-66 China & Beyond India. As one reads the PME, one progresses through the sites on the navigational routes that formed the trading networks in the Erythraean sea and Indian Ocean. There are two major routes, the Western Route, along the Eastern African coast of the Red Sea, which begins with the port of Muos Hormos and ends with the port of Rhapta, and the Eastern Route, from the Arabian Coast to the Indian Ocean, which begins at Leukē Kōmē and ends in the loosely defined port, or country, of Thina (see map below). This specific “periplus” presents several deviations from canonical standards, for it gives an account of African and Asian coastlines of the Erythraean Sea, “despite the fact that Egyptian sailors generally headed to a single destination by sailing over open water” (De Romanis, 2020: 99). Similarly, as a guidebook for Alexandrian merchants, financiers, and Indian ocean sailors, it privileges the description of products over the descriptions of the peoples and regions, and has a very strong focus on the commodities exported and imported at each emporium.

There are five main translations of the Periplus of Erythrean Sea, which are in chronological order the Vincent (1805), McCriddle (1879), Schoff (1912), Huntigford (1980), and lastly the Casson (1989). Casson’s commentary has been very influential on the understanding of trade in the IOW.

This text has been subject of many studies and has a very onerous legacy. The Periplus Maris Erythraei led to a scholarly emphasis on commodity exchange, leading them to paint a picture of the Indian Ocean trade network that prioritizes the trade of raw materials. It is important to acknowledge that the Periplus also leads to a Romano-centric approach. Given that the text was written in Greek it drew the attention of classicists who ventured on to retrace the trade networks connecting India to the Mediterranean world, leading to South Arabia, East Africa, and Southeast Asia being overlooked till recent years. Scholarship has recently turned towards analyzing further the roles of these regions beyond the Periplus, turning to local sources, as well as also moving beyond the strict focus on raw materials and commodities. In one way attention has turned to the human aspect of the text, in an effort to “peopling” the Indian Ocean world in the early 1st millennium CE. Other objects, beyond raw materials, such as figurines from India found in different areas of Arabia and Eastern Africa is making scholars turn to an understanding of this oceanscape that goes beyond the economic transaction system represented by the Periplus and emphasized by scholarship on the Periplus. This figurines were studied in depth in a seminar series organized by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. For more information on new ways of engaging with the Periplus and the objects found in the Indian Ocean World from the early 1st millennium CE visit Indian Ocean Figures Who Sailed Away.

Bibliography

To see an extenstive bibliography of the “Periplus” and the works used in the creation of this website click here. Bibliographical info on individual sites will also be provided in the individual site pages.