Ptolemaic military operations were a dominant factor in the spread of Egyptian cults across the early Hellenistic Aegean Sea.

Tomáš Glomb,Zdeněk Stachoň,Aleš Chalupa,Zdeněk Pospíšil,Adam Mertel,Peter F. Biehl

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193786

Abstract

Early in the Ptolemaic era, Egyptian cults, particularly those of Isis and Sarapis, spread successfully to ports across the ancient Aegean Sea. Leading researchers in the field claim that the spread of these cults was influenced by multiple factors, ones that were mainly economic or political in character. However, the question of which factors had more weight or impact than others in the process of the early spread of Egyptian cults has not yet been answered in academic discussion. This could be related to the fact that the issue of the spread of religious innovations in the ancient Mediterranean has been addressed mainly by established historiographical methods such as the collection and critical analysis of archaeological and literary sources. Hypotheses and conclusions derived from these methods are, however, often unable to reflect the complexity of historical processes. A possible solution can be found in supplementing this established methodological apparatus by formalized methods, e.g. the coding of relevant datasets, statistics, geospatial modeling, and network analysis. To be able to compare the possible impacts of different factors on the spread of Egyptian cults in the Aegean Sea region, we 1) constructed a model of the ancient maritime transportation network as a platform for quantitative analysis, 2) transformed selected factors of possible influence into georeferenced parameters of the network, and 3) defined a mathematical model that allowed us to determine which parameters of the network explain the spatial dissemination of archaeological evidence connected to Egyptian cults. The results suggest that the most significant correlation is between the placement of Ptolemaic garrisons and the distribution of Egyptian temples and artefacts in the early Hellenistic Aegean Sea region. The interpretation would be that Egyptian military forces potentially played a significant role in the spread of Egyptian cults.

Highlights

The mathematical models applied in this study revealed statistically significant patterns and correlations with respect to the different factors involved in the process of the early spread of the Egyptian cults of Isis and Sarapis across the Hellenistic Aegean Sea
The results show that factors from different levels such as trade, politics, network position, and distance probably all worked together in a complex manner that allowed the successful spread of ancient Egyptian cults in the Aegean Sea region
Quantitative approaches suggest that in the region of the Aegean Sea in the period between the end of the 4th century BCE and approximately the middle of the 2nd century BCE, the continuous presence of Ptolemaic garrisons in the Aegean Sea region was possibly one of the most influential factors in the early spread of cults connected to Isis and Sarapis

Summary

Introduction

During the reign of the first six kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which is the period between the end of the 4th century BCE and the middle of the 2nd century BCE, Egyptian cults spread. This is a serious problem when considering merchants travelling from Egypt as potential carriers of Egyptian cults This issue, could be partially resolved by analysing pieces of data which are not primarily considered as archaeological or literary evidence but which indicate the islands in the Aegean Sea that were, for example, fertile or barren, answering the question of which islands were potentially more dependent on Egyptian grain imports than others. They were engaged in several military conflicts with the Antigonid and Seleucid dynasties, and spread their influence on the Aegean Islands and the coastal cities of Asia Minor [6,40].

Methods

Results

Ã residual

Discussion