Underwater excavation at Heracleion still ongoing

It is nice to read about the progress of underwater excavations at the Egyptian site of Heracleion. It is in the news again as Oxford University is also diving at the site (see my earlier post: Heracleion, an ancient Greek port in Egypt) and presenting a few interesting pictures.

For the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology it is a unique opportunity to partake in this project and divers have recovered many important ancient landmarks at the mouth of the Nile. There are, for instance, more than five meters tall statues that were hauled to the surface, not counting the hundreds of smaller statues that were retrieved from the sea floor. So far a monumental statue of goddess Isis and a massive head of the god Serapis have been removed. Art treasures like jewelry, coins and ceramics have also be recovered and testify of the glorious past of Heracleion, named according to Diodorus after Heracles because he stopped the flood of the Nile.

Work in this murky water is pretty difficult but very promising. The article published in The Oxford Times adequately states that “it can appear that someone emptied the contents of the Museum of Cairo on the bottom of the Mediterranean, while the images of building foundations appear akin to an underwater Pompeii”.

As mentioned in my earlier post (Heracleion, ancient Greek port in Egypt), the remains of 64 ships have been found, but also over 700 anchors. At present the archaeological team is focussing on what they call Shipwreck 43, a 24-meter long vessel that has been dated between 785 and 480 BC and is one of eight belonging to the same size. This is a flat-bottomed vessel, ideal to operate in shallow waters. 

The article in the Oxford Times mentions further that a major exhibition will be held in Germany next year and hopefully will come to the UK at a later date.

[Picture from the Oxford Times]