Animal cemetery and caravan stop — investigating suburban space in a transcontinental port in Berenike (Red Sea, Egypt)

•Berenike was a port of trade between the Roman Empire, Arabia, Africa and India.•Companion animals were buried with care during town’s peak prosperity in 1–2c. CE.•A masonry structure became the centerpiece of the animal cemetery in mid-1st c. CE.•Caravans from the Nile Valley may have stopped near the area of animal cemetery.•Data from animal cemetery illuminates spatial development of the ancient port suburbs. This paper presents new archaeological information concerning the development of suburban space in the ancient Roman port of Berenike in Egypt. Excavations conducted over the past decade in a small animal cemetery located around what was, most likely, a cult structure have produced evidence showing that rubbish dumping was accompanied by other activities, specifically the burial of companion animals. Artifact analysis, especially the faunal and malacological remains, which are divided into four functional phases established on the grounds of a detailed stratigraphical examination, highlights how this zone evolved into an area for servicing the pack animals, camels and donkeys that constituted the backbone of the trade and goods supply train between the Red Sea coast and the Nile Valley during the peak period of this transcontinental port (1st–2nd centuries CE). In this context, the apparent dissonance between a sacred zone, that is, the animal cemetery, and the (un)controlled deposition of urban waste in one and the same area is also considered.