In the course of the seminars, the issues of trade in the Red Sea and the control of communication routes were tackled by calling on colleagues specializing in certain fields.
Mr. Michel Reddé, Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, studied " The architecture of Roman army forts in Egypt's Eastern Desert " from a comparative perspective with the forts of the Roman Limes.
Charlène Bouchaut, a specialist in carpology and archaeobotany, explained " The contribution of carpology and botany to the study of ancient trade relations ".
Ms. Roberta Tomber, ceramist at the British Museum, traced trade flows in the Indian Ocean based on ceramics found in Egypt, Yemen and India in a lecture entitled " From Egypt's Red Sea to the Malabar Coast: Rome's eastern trade ".
Adam Bülow-Jacobsen, Professor at the University of Copenhagen, presented camel and donkey caravans on the Myos Hormos and Berenice routes.
Hélène Cuvigny, Director of Research at the CNRS, posed the following question : " Why don't the ostraca texts found in the Roman forts of the Berenice desert tell us more about Eritrean trade ? ". This question gave rise to a debate on the nature of our sources - papyrological, epigraphical, ceramological, archaeological - their contributions and their shortcomings.