Tamed monkeys in the Roman military: A strange but true tradition
The ancient Roman military officials who served in the port of Berenice on the Red Sea coast, as it turned out, were unusually attached to their pets. A new study conducted by Polish scientists describes three dozen Asian primates discovered in a local animal cemetery. They were not only transported to Egypt from southern and northern India, but also provided for almost like children, sometimes even giving them their own pets.
Scientists have dated the finds to the 1st–2nd centuries AD, when Berenice was inhabited by the Roman elite. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M . For the full article. Most of the macaques were found next to artifacts that indicate that the animals belonged to the officers.
Judging by the bone remains, rhesus monkeys and Indian macaques lived in Berenice, as well as one green monkey. All of them were brought from outside the empire, which makes the find the first of its kind: previously, no pets had been found in the Roman context, brought so far away.
Burials show that animals were treated with special trepidation. One young primate was buried alongside a piglet, two large seashells, a wicker basket, and an unusually folded cloth that resembled a rag doll. The researchers suggest that all these objects belonged to the macaque and could be important for the “transition” to the afterlife. In another grave, a puppy and a kitten were found placed next to a macaque, and another grave was marked with a tombstone.
Researchers believe that the Romans perceived monkeys as creatures of “semi-human status,” as pointed out by the writer Pliny the Elder. At the same time, the primates suffered from malnutrition: their exotic nature made caring for them difficult. But for the officers, owning such a macaque was an important social symbol, emphasizing their high status and connections. In Berenice, the Asian macaque was the highest form of prestige: a man with a monkey on a leash was considered an explorer of distant lands and the owner of an unusual experience.
