Nearly 300 years before the establishment of Alexandria, Egypt was home to communities of Greeks, as well as Carians, Cypriots, and Phoenicians, who settled in the Nile Delta. Some would have arrived as mercenaries in the services of the Egyptian Pharaoh, while others arrived as traders who took advantage of the Nile Delta as a gateway between Egypt and the wider Mediterranean world. This talk explores these communities at sites including Memphis, Naukratis, and Tell Defenneh, where these migrants lived, traded, worshipped, and buried their dead. The archaeological evidence reveals how individuals from different cultures around the Mediterranean fused seemingly different traditions and practices to negotiate these multicultural spaces.
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