Researchers have discovered a two-foot-tall Buddha statue in Berenike, an ancient Egyptian port city. The artifact is the first Buddha ever found west of Afghanistan, according to the New York Review of Books’ William Dalrymple. Made from Mediterranean marble, it provides new evidence of trade between ancient Rome and India.Based on stylistic details, the researchers think it was made in Alexandria around the second century C.E. A halo around the statue’s head is covered with rays of sun, “which indicates his radiant mind,” says the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in a statement, per Google Translate.
