Berenike Buddha

The Berenike Buddha is a statue of the Buddha parts of which were discovered in January 2018 and January 2022 in an archaeological excavation in the ancient harbour of Berenike, Egypt, by an American-Polish archaeological mission. The statue was discovered in the forecourt of an early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis.

The statue is the first statue of the Buddha to be ever found west of Afghanistan. It attests to the extent of Indo-Roman relations in the early centuries of the Common Era.

Based on stylistic details and the context of the excavation, it is thought that the statue was made in Alexandria around the second century CE. According to Steven Sidebotham, a history professor at the University of Delaware who is co-director of the Berenike Project, the statue dates to between 90 and 140 CE. It was made from a stone that was extracted south of Istanbul, and may also have been carved in Berenike itself. The statue has a halo around the head of the Buddha, decorated with the rays of the sun, and has a lotus flower by his side. It is 71cm tall.

The excavations at Berenike also yielded other artifacts related to ancient India: an inscription in Sanskrit dated to the Roman Emperor, Philip the Arab (244 to 249 CE), as well as Satavahana coins dated to the 2nd century CE. They also discovered inscriptions in Greek, including one below the Sanskrit inscriptions, something Rodney Ast, the researcher from Heidelberg University who discovered the Buddha figure, says is “unique in Egypt.”

“It’s probable that the statues were carved in Berenice and, without a doubt, the inscription too. So the place had artisans capable of making those objects and people interested in ordering them,” explains Ast, who also points out that the discovery raises new questions. “What does it mean to make an offering of a Buddha statue in a Roman temple to Isis in Egypt? It is a topic that will keep anthropologists, historians and others busy for a while,” he says.

Various fragmentary parts of Buddha statues (torsos, heads) had already been discovered at Berenike in 2019, some made of local gypsum.