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Good evening and welcome to this live stream, brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology.

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My name is Damian Robinson, and I'm the director of the centre and an associate professor here in the School of Archaeology.

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Now, over the past term,

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we've been running a twice weekly series of evening lectures which has been exploring the ancient port of Alexandria and its relationship to the sea.

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It's founded by Alexander the Great and is lavishly developed by the Ptolemaic royal family, and it's further restructured in the Roman period.

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This is one of the most important ports in the ancient Mediterranean.

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It's a place of palaces and temples, markets and key sites.

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It's one of the ancient wonders of the world. The iconic lighthouse of Alexandria is there.

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It's a place of spectacle, political intrigue, warfare and feverish economic activity.

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Now, our seminars were inspired by the work of tonight's speaker, Franck Goddio.

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He's one of the world's leading underwater archaeologists.

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And over the past 25 years, Franck and his team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology,

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in partnership with Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities and with the long standing support of the Hilti Foundation,

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they've scientifically explored beneath the waters of the eastern harbour and

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have revealed in stunning detail the extent of the remains of this great port.

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So over the course of this term, we've seen academic papers on scientific aspects of its archaeology.

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We've looked at temples and palaces, shipwrecks. We've analyzed ceramics.

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We've looked at the coins. But tonight, though, Franck is going to join all of these together and more and present for the first

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time a sweeping overview of the Portus Magnus and his phenomenal work there.

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So if you've got any questions while we're going along, please add them to the comments.

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And at the end I'll put these to Franck, to our speaker.

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When we should have ten minutes or so to go through them. So now I'll hand over to Franck and give you all his lecture.

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The Portus Magnus of Alexandria. 25 years of underwater research.

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Thank you. Franck. Good evening.

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Thank you for this very nice introduction. We have here a satellite view of the east port of Alexandria.

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Since 1992, the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology, together with the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquity,

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have performed geophysic surveys and underwater archaeological excavations in the inside of this port,

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and the area is defined North by the West and East Breakwaters.

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East by Cape Silsileh and South by the present Corniche.

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The total area surveyed and on which we work is 268 hectares, which is quite a nice playground for underwater archaeology.

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For the geophysic survey, since 1992,

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we apply all new types of geophysical equipment.

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And we have, as a matter of fact, co-developed with institutions, some of them,

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like the nuclear resonance magnetometer with the French Centre for Atomic Energy and also the parametric sub bottom profiler,

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which is a prototype that we have, we are experiencing and developing nowadays since four years with German universities.

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In order to understand the ancient topography of the Portus Magnus one have to consider

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that we have found and discovered land and structures which were emerging in the antiquity, up to 8m below current sea level.

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To explain that, you have to take into account that the sea level has risen by about two m in 2,000 years, about ten cm a century.

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That also there is a natural subsidence of the ground, which has lowered the ancient ground surface by two m.

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Meaning also more or less 10 cm by century.

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But above this, we have found that episode of soil liquefaction happened that was triggered by natural disasters such as earthquake and tidal wave,

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which caused the collapse of the ancient ground surface up to four ms in places.

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But the natural disaster did not concern only the clay ground.

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It's also altered the rocky ground places.

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Underwater,

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important cracks are found on those rocky ground places, and there is evidence that large, rocky plates slid down to adjacent deeper areas,

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dragging all existing constructions on them and the heavier the monument on them were, the deeper the rocky plates sank.

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Another factor: the sea erosion has lowered ancient ground surface and port structures,

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Whether they were already under water or still staying above water in places.

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Thus, in order to understand the topography of the ancient Portus Magnus, one must consider that all grounds in and around the present Eastport,

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lying under water at less than 6.5m below current sea level, were emerging land in ancient times.

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And that all grounds lying under water between 6.5m to eight ms below current sea level,

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were dangerous reefs in ancient times, and to illustrate the action of the ground subsidence and of the sea erosion,

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look at this representation of the Diamond Rock in 1798.

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High protruding rock from the seawater. Nowadays it is there, lying totally underwater.

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It has totally disappeared in 220 years.

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During 25 years of survey and archaeological underwater excavations,

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we have revealed that important stratigraphies resulting from 2300 years of occupation of the Portus Magnus can still be excavated without any problem.

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And you see here a picture of one of our excavation in the Portus Magnus, and you see the different archaeological strata here.

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We have also faced that important coastal

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and Nile sedimentation happened, especially inside the port basin.

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We have sometimes up to 4 to 5 m recent sediment at the bottom of the ancient port basin,

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and we found also evidence of sea erosion and dredging, which have in some places

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unfortunately erased the archaeological strata. 

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What we can say today is that after several natural disasters, the Portus Magnus was finally totally submerged at the end of the 8th century AD.

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Let us go back to our satellite view and let us perform in that area a very detailed multi-beam bathymetric survey.

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Here it is. You see on that picture

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some relief at the bottom of the water.

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The deeper blue is, the deeper the water and the shallower water

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are there in yellow and orange. The shape that you are seeing under water here

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are like a ghost of the topography of the past.

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We have performed thousands of reconnaissance and hundreds of archaeological excavations in order to precise and define the contour of the land,

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and to sometimes confirm what we were seeing in the bathymetric map but during those

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excavations we have also discovered many structures which were totally hidden

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under the sediment.

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During the excavation, we also discovered monuments and ancient structures which were lying once upon a time on those sunken lands, now sunken lands.

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You have here a full topography of the Portus Magnus

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and on the land,

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we can now post the major monuments that we have discovered, which are represented in red here,

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and also some antique structures which existed at that time, which are in white.

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Everything we have discovered confirmed

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what we knew from the ancient texts.

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And we can put a name now on some of those port structures and even on some of the monuments.

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East of the Portus Magnus were the royal quarters, west of the Portus Magnus, were the Navalia.

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Let us see and go to the royal quarters.

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We have a nice description of those royal quarters by Strabo,

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the geographer who lived five years in Alexandria from 26 BC to 20 BC,

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and he's telling us that the great harbour, the Portus Magnus, was composed of several ports.

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Yes, indeed, there is several ports we can count one, two, three, four and maybe five ports here,

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if ever that modern dike is covering an ancient dike called Jabatra in ancient texts.

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And he's saying, that all the ports were deep enough in order to allow a big ship to moor at the wall.

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And yes, he is right, all the ports are minimum 3m deep.

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So this port here being much deeper. Let us go now in

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to see them one by one. Let us consider the north port here Strabo is talking about.

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He says that, on the Cape Lochias was a palace

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and under the Cape Lochias lie a harbour that was dug by the hand of man and is hidden from the view,

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the private property of the king. That port, which was a royal port of the galley, covered an area of 7 hectares.

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There is here a beautiful dike built of superb limestone blocks and the port is highly protected by a large breakwater

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built of mortar and limestone blocks.

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Very impressive. It is in that port that we found six m of modern sediments at that spot.

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That port was much deeper that you could see here.

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The second port we have is going southwards, it is a very big port, 15 hectare.

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It is protected by a large breakwater.

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And look at this here. You can see the breakwater and you have a close up of that breakwater here.

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You can first see that it has been cut in several parts by earthquake unfortunately.

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That breakwater is 250 m long, 21 m wide.

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And here you see some structures, which allow, of course, to put the chain between this land here and the tip of this breakwater.

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Thus, most probably there was a chain closing this military port area.

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Third port: the central port. We call it the port of the Emporium, because it's just in front of the Emporium.

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It is closed on the north by a beautiful peninsula, towards the west by an island and the north coast.

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It has a wide entrance and a second passage here which allows the circulation of the water.

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Very well done. But Strabo is describing also an island with a small royal port.

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He described: "Antirhodos is an isle lying off the artificial harbour, which has a royal palace and a small harbour."

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The harbour of Antirhodos island is very well sheltered by the south west dike here,

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and the counter dike to the north here, which is totally buried now under the sediment.

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That port is 3 hectare,

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whereas the port of the Emporium gives an additional 13 hectares of port structure.

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But we have a change during Roman time.

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It happened that around 50 A.D. an earthquake struck Antirhodos Island.

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The royal harbour of Antirhodos since that time was converted into a trading port and on the second century A.D.

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Antirhodos Island was no longer a royal place, and a large breakwater was built by the Romans,

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with huge motar blocks, 13m by 3m by 3m,

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creating a beautiful, large, vast port of 16 hectares just facing the very famed temple of the Caesarium, the temple of the Caesars.

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I propose to you to visit the Portus Magnus.

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Please follow the guide. We go first we leave the palace of Cape Lochias,

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take the dike and sail at the exit of the port of the galley to that area here.

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That area attracted our attention very much, because as you can see here, it is literally covered with limestone blocks of 1 cubic m.

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1 cubic m limestone blocks are quite unusual in the construction of building.

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You normally build with parallelepipedic blocks, not cubic blocks.

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During excavation we saw that those blocks were going down,

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with a light slope under the sediment and continuing under the sediment.

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Here you have the area which were emerging lands in the antiquity.

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And we could, studying this area,

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see that there is several inclined planes in different directions towards the south,

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a very big one with a slipway, towards the east another one and towards the north,

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a large inclined plane. We are there, obviously,

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in a dockyard, you know shipyard.

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And that royal shipyard is mentioned by several authors.

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Caesar says: "..and in the secret Royal dockyards

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there were old ships…". Yes we are there most probably in the Royal shipyard of the Ptolemies.

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Let us go on with the visit. And from that shipyard, let's consider this area, the central area of the Royal quarters.

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If we post all the fragments of the red granite columns on those lands you can see them

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here represented as pink dots, there are hundreds of them.

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And this gives you an idea of what could look like

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the Portus Magnus in the antiquity with all those colonnades or around you have here a representation of all those columns under water.

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And it must have looked very much like this representation that is thought to be a representation of Stabiae Port,

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with those columns boarding the port basin with statues on them and colonnades here.

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Let us first visit this peninsula protruding from the ancient coast.

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That peninsula is described by Strabo himself.

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He says the Posedium is an elbow of land 

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projecting from the Emporium and having a temple to Poseidon.

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Thus, it's worth visiting that place of the Portus Magnus. Follow the guide.

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We will start to swim above this very large paved walkway leading to a large temple there.

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That walkway is, as a foundation of mortar and limestone, contained within wooden posts and planking,

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and all the ground around is reinforced by wooden posts.

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Very interestingly enough, also, among the limestone slabs,

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hundreds of different stone anchors, which are used as pavement and under each part of this walkway

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are red granite columns. It must have been extremely beautiful.

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Following that walkway, we will reach the Temple of Poseidon.

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You have here a 3D stereo photogrammetry of the whole area, which is 80 m by about 50 m.

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And you can see here the limestone block foundation of a temple with a large area of mortar blocks as foundation and south to it

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all the granite columns of the temple which have collapsed towards the south.

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As a matter of fact, all the monuments of the Portus Magnus collapsed towards the south.

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You have here on a bathymetric map posted in white

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all the limestone blocks, which are remaining from the foundation and all

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the red granite columns which are here in pink towards the south. In grey

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here you have the large mortar blocks.

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Facing that temple is a small lake, beautifully built with limestone blocks.

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And you have a landing stage, controlled by the tower towards the south.

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On the site, all the ground is reinforced with wooden posts,

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which has been most probably done after the construction of the temple, during after maybe a small disaster.

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You can see here the large limestone blocks and of course, red granite columns everywhere.

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The columns must have been about 6 m high.

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In the area of the temple we have discovered beautiful artefacts.

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This head of a Ptolemaic priest made of granite.

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This marble head of Antonia minor  

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But very interesting, this element bearing

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hieroglyphs. It's a fragment of an obelisk

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and around that fragment were pieces of granite

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proceeding from the same artefact.

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Meaning that most probably there was one, maybe two,

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we don't know, obelisks posted in front of that temple.

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And those obelisks were brought from Heliopolis

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and they date back from the time of Seti I, 13th century B.C.

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You have also quartzite sphinxes, which are associated with this temple.

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Small artefacts have been found on the area, which has been heavily looted anyhow. Ceramic from the 1st BC to the 1st A.D.

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The upper strata has been totally eroded and by the sea and is no longer available.

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Some jewelry and some nice bronze statuettes.

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From the temple let us swim towards the end of this peninsula, in a very interesting area, mentioned by Strabo himself.

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He says at the elbow on this elbow of land, the Poseidium, Antony added a mole projecting still farther into middle

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of a harbour and on the extremity of it

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he built a royal lodge, which he called Timonium.

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This is where he was spending days with Cleopatra VII.

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We are there, you see the peninsula of the Poseidium.

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And here are a large mole. And if we zoom here

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you will see the vestiges of a monument there, which is still under excavation.

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It's a 30 by 30 m monument. Beautifully built with limestone blocks, the ground being reinforced by wooden posts and planking,

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dating back from perfectly the end of the Ptolemaic period.

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As you can see in the carbon 14 data that we have done.

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This monument has been heavily looted.

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And very few things remained.

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And we have evidence that it has been on purpose destroyed, and that something has been rebuilt further on that site.

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You can see here some of the artefacts, some architectonic element. Amphorae from the end of the 1st century B.C. and some,

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gold Aureus dating back from Antinoos and Caracalla.

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Very few things, but the excavation is still going on.

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From that area let us swim above the ancient coast.

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Here the royal ancient coast and moles are beautifully paved

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with limestone slabs and it's literally littered by red granite columns everywhere.

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Swimming alongside the coast, you will meet some Egyptian gods: Thot, Agatodeimon.

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You will encounter sphinxes like this one.

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And many red granite blocks bearing hieroglyphs.

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Of Course, all those artefacts that you can see now were totally buried

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under sediment before the excavations.

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From the ancient coast, let us now visit Antirhodos Island.

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It's a very important place.

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This is what it was seeing the Portus Magnus: "Antirhodos is an isle lying off the artificial harbour, which has a royal palace and a small harbour."

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Let us go first, of course, to the main monument of the island on the main branch.

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And the site which must have been once upon a time, the palace, of course.

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And there, unfortunately, you'll find a chaos of big limestone blocks.

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The site has been extremely looted in antiquity.

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This monument covers an area of 68 m by 23 m.

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Altogether 1564 square m, is not a small monument.

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On it very little artefacts.

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However, we found some sections of red green columns which has been presented to you during this symposium beautifully by Suzanne Walker.

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They all bear inscriptions about the glory of Caracalla, and they were obviously basis for statues of the Roman Emperor Caracalla,

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made erected there in the 3rd century A.D. They are 1.05m in diameter.

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And you will see. We know now their origin, as you will see later.

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Close to the palace there is also some fragment of door jamb, and one of them is interesting.

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This one, it bears a hieroglyph, the cartouche of King Apries.

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But the door jamb is being cut into two.

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And we found the remaining part more than half a km away on the antique coast.

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It illustrates the strength of the tidal wave, which struck the Portus Magnus and could break and bring one heavy monument

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of several hundred kilo half a km away.

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Close to it you will see also a nice statue representing a Ptolemaic queen made of marble, higher than nature

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and a Ptolemaic King represented as Hermes, most probably Ptolemy III.

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An interesting spot on this island is the north east tip.

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There is a remain of a very old, small wooden jetty dating back from before the foundation of the city of Alexandria.

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And it has been incorporated during the Ptolemaic time within the island.

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Another very interesting monument on Antirhdos Island

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is posted here. This monument collapsed on each part of the secondary branch of the Island.

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And this was very lucky for us, because everything which is destroyed and collapsed on the land has been later,

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of course, recuperated or heavily looted.

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But what is falling and collapsing into the harbour are sometimes protected, and this was the case.

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We have here all the limestone blocks proceeding from a monument and a large concentration of red granite columns of 1.05m of diameter.

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As a matter of fact,

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all the columns which fell above land have been recuperated and used as base of statuary for Caracalla in the 3rd century.

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But those who fell into the port are still there and could not be recuperated.

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Among them we found also some architectural elements.

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And also, south to the columns,

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we have a very interesting find.

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Consisted in a beautiful statue of a priest of Isis

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holding Osiris-Canopus, protected by two Ptolemaic sphinxes, one of them is the likeness of Ptolemy XII, the father of Cleopatra VII.

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On that temple, which was obviously a temple devoted to Isis, an Iseum,

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we found, inside of each part of the Island,

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ritual instruments of silver, bronze, lead and beautiful ceramic by hundreds.

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00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:11,870
We can date back this monument thanks to the architectural element and of the artefacts.

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This monument has been founded early 1st century BC and has known

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quite a great importance starting from the time of Ptolemy XII, father of Cleopatra.

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You have here we found several silver coins, 3 or 4 of them of Ptolemy XII, bronze coins of Cleopatra VII

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and gold coins of Augustus here.

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Alongside a beautiful portrait made of rock crystal and important bronze statuettes and among other very interesting artefacts.

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We can say that life of this temple started before

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or at the time of Ptolemy XII and was totally stopped in 50 A.D when it has been struck by obviously, by an earthquake.

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There is no artefact among the artefacts fallen into the harbour after 50 A.D.

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Let us leave now this centre of glory and power

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where Cleopatra VII had a palace

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and a temple to Isis, which is very nicely symbolized by these gold ring that we found there, representing 

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an eagle holding a crown in his beak.

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And let us go on the ancient coast just in front of it.

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This place was very well known.

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In the 18th century, two obelisks, one of them was still standing and the other one fallen, were marking the temple to the Caesars,

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the Caesarium. The Caesarium was a temple which was thought to have been built by

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Cleopatra VII and terminated and extended by Augustus and his followers.

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But there, we have something interesting.

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The temple of the Caesars, the Caesarium, was known as maybe the bigger, the most beautiful temple of antiquity.

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Just in front of it, are the moles of the ancient Portus Magnus.

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But we could prove by archaeological excavations that starting, from the mid first century A.D., or early 1st century A.D.

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a vast portion of land has been reclaimed

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towards the port. Thus, that temple must have been projected,

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must have been planned well before Cleopatra VII, because the land has been reclaimed just in front well before her.

281
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All around this area we found very important statues like this falcon-headed-crocodile sphinx

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dating back from the 8th century BC,

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with the big ears listening the prayer of the people.

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A colossus portrait of the son of Caesar and Cleopatra,

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Ptolemy XV, Caesarion. The whole statue

286
00:40:21,350 --> 00:40:25,670
must have been at least seven m high.

287
00:40:28,870 --> 00:40:34,430
The remains of a colossal statue of an Egyptian pharaoh, Merenptah,

288
00:40:35,010 --> 00:40:38,370
brought most probably from Heliopolis,

289
00:40:42,030 --> 00:40:46,890
Pyramidion of a naos bearing the cartouche of a Ptolemaic king.

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Red granite altar. And you can see here the material, very beautiful material like this black, green porphyry.

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And also those elements here of red granite bearing cartouche of a pharaoh. We found many, many of those.

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00:41:08,410 --> 00:41:22,360
They proceed from very big fasciculated red granite columns, which have been brought from the temple of Ptah in Memphis.

293
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And fortunately enough we can say now that they have been brought most probably under the rule of Emperor Trajan,

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and that they have been brought after 114 A.D, because of a cartouche of Trajan with a special title engraved on it.

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I have to say that those fasciculated columns were perfectly fit for the temple of the Caesars,

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the temple of the dynasty continuity, as they were proceeding from the temple of Ptah in Memphis,

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and they were wearing the cartouche of several pharaohs,

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Tuthmosis IV, Merenptah and Seti II.

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Let us leave now the royal quarter and let us visit

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00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:29,290
the Navalia towards the west.

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00:42:30,340 --> 00:42:36,850
First, we will see that port, very strange port, protected by a dike,

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which is not man made, but it's dug into the rock and the port is dug into the rock.

303
00:42:44,260 --> 00:42:56,290
And that dike is connected to the coast by a walkway or by a dike made of limestone blocks,

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and wooden posts, which has been dated from the Roman times,

305
00:43:03,180 --> 00:43:09,100
and at the western part of that dike is a small monument with red granite columns here.

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00:43:14,590 --> 00:43:20,520
Going north we will see very nice docks,

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00:43:20,910 --> 00:43:23,930
beautifully built and paved.

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And their basement is made of wooden post

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with limestone blocks, which have been paved above.

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They are beautiful. And they all date back from the Roman times. Thus the Romans have extended the port to the north.

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Same thing towards the north.

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Here we have large mole built of big mortar blocks and supported with a basement reinforced by wooden posts.

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There. You have now a vision of the inside of the Portus Magnus.

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00:44:20,030 --> 00:44:23,389
But one can say: "How did the whole Portus Magnus look like?"

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00:44:23,390 --> 00:44:30,440
For that you have first to add all lands

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00:44:32,980 --> 00:44:42,100
which are around the port, and which are nowadays at least 6.5m deep.

317
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They were emerging in the antiquities. Here they are from the bathymetric map.

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The nautical chart. Above this, you have to consider the beautiful work done by Goiran and Hesse

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00:45:01,150 --> 00:45:08,980
on land, doing geophysical surveys in order to determine the position of the Heptastadium,

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00:45:09,580 --> 00:45:14,680
the dike linking the land to the pharaoh's island.

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Here we are. 

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Then, you have to take away, of course, a modern structure and take into account the bathymetry of that area,

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which has been done before the construction of those structures

324
00:45:35,290 --> 00:45:39,280
in the early 20th century. Here we are!

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And here you can see a satellite view

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00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:53,850
done with a satellite in 30 B.C.

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And you have a nice overview of the Portus Magnus.

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00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:07,270
That Portus Magnus is dating back,

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00:46:07,630 --> 00:46:13,630
this vision or representation of the Portus Magnus dates back from the Ptolemaic time. During Roman time,

330
00:46:14,260 --> 00:46:19,060
we have to add this huge breakwater,

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00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:30,080
protecting the new port facing the Caesarium, and the new port built here by the Romans.

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Let us know look at the connectivity of that port during Ptolemaic time.

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00:46:39,190 --> 00:46:43,720
In red are the connections for the trading ships.

334
00:46:44,140 --> 00:46:50,050
You have several entrances. The main entrance here between the reefs.

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00:46:50,290 --> 00:47:00,309
Most probably the Djabatra, this is an assumption because it's covered by the modern dike, but it's mentioned in the antiquity. 

336
00:47:00,310 --> 00:47:03,370
And an island and very big reefs here, dangerous reefs here,

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00:47:03,580 --> 00:47:14,500
this is the central passage, the main passage. And the secondary passage there between Pharos Island and those reefs and the island.

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00:47:14,500 --> 00:47:17,860
We might have a third one here.

339
00:47:18,580 --> 00:47:22,420
Hypothetical, because here there is a passage, but it's blocked here

340
00:47:22,720 --> 00:47:26,350
by the modern dike. And most probably there was a port there.

341
00:47:26,590 --> 00:47:33,490
This is hypothetical. Thus, the trading ship could enter both passages here,

342
00:47:34,420 --> 00:47:39,340
go towards the port of the Emporium. Go out of this port also

343
00:47:39,340 --> 00:47:47,860
by the second passage if they want, with blowing winds from the northwest and they could

344
00:47:48,100 --> 00:47:58,090
sail to the other port in the west by crossing the two passages in the Heptastadium.

345
00:47:58,390 --> 00:48:08,350
They could go into the Navalia. As for the official boats and the military boats, they could use the two passages,

346
00:48:08,350 --> 00:48:17,110
they had to enter there, cross this entrance closed by a chain here and go into the Military port,

347
00:48:17,110 --> 00:48:23,170
the second port, the port of the galley. And they could also go, of course, to the royal port there.

348
00:48:24,950 --> 00:48:28,040
There has been a change during Roman times. Of course.

349
00:48:30,410 --> 00:48:34,040
Because new areas were devoted to the trade.

350
00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:41,750
The whole port of the Emporium, but also Antirhodos port was a trading port there.

351
00:48:42,050 --> 00:48:45,680
And this is also confirmed by the shipwrecks that we found there.

352
00:48:45,980 --> 00:48:56,990
One of them is the beautiful J3 shipwreck, recently presented by Damian,

353
00:48:56,990 --> 00:49:06,830
during this symposium. And they could leave from there going to the port of the Caesarium there and sail towards the Heptastadium.

354
00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:12,320
For the Military, they could use the same area there.

355
00:49:14,900 --> 00:49:22,459
I think we have a nice view of the most recent

356
00:49:22,460 --> 00:49:33,110
aspect of the Portus Magnus before it was struck and totally destroyed by natural

357
00:49:33,140 --> 00:49:41,600
disaster and natural phenomena like land subsidence and rising of the sea water.

358
00:49:45,400 --> 00:50:01,690
Thank you very much. If you have some question. Thank you very much, Franck, for that fantastic overview of the development of the port.

359
00:50:01,990 --> 00:50:06,250
It really is a kind of monumental project in maritime archaeology.

360
00:50:06,700 --> 00:50:09,550
I was wondering if I might ask the first question,

361
00:50:09,820 --> 00:50:21,130
what is the balance that you have between the detailed geophysical survey, the underwater survey and then the excavation?

362
00:50:21,820 --> 00:50:25,780
How do you sort of decide what to do with each of these?

363
00:50:26,710 --> 00:50:35,980
As a matter of fact, the geophysical survey are still going on nowadays because, of course,

364
00:50:36,250 --> 00:50:41,860
there's new equipment that we are developing, that we are testing.

365
00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:51,520
Thus, there is a combination during every mission, doing the survey and the underwater excavation.

366
00:50:51,970 --> 00:50:58,250
And sometimes the underwater excavation is leading to new survey.

367
00:50:58,280 --> 00:51:03,669
I will give you an example, in the port of the galley we have done the Survey,

368
00:51:03,670 --> 00:51:05,499
but when we started the excavation,

369
00:51:05,500 --> 00:51:16,540
we saw that there were six m of modern sediments and that we had to go much deeper with the parametric

370
00:51:16,810 --> 00:51:23,570
sub bottom profiler, in order to reach what could lie 

371
00:51:23,650 --> 00:51:31,510
at the bottom of the port of the Galley. Thus, we have to do next mission a new survey on that area.

372
00:51:31,510 --> 00:51:36,280
because the survey we have done is not... is not sufficient.

373
00:51:37,210 --> 00:51:50,650
And I would say that, each year, we are doing hundreds of dive and excavation hours.

374
00:51:51,190 --> 00:51:59,770
And there is a huge amount of knowledge brought to us at each mission.

375
00:52:00,250 --> 00:52:05,500
So the survey helps you to target where to excavate,

376
00:52:05,620 --> 00:52:12,549
and then the excavations lead to more questions, more Surveys. And leads also to more surveys,

377
00:52:12,550 --> 00:52:22,030
there is a kind of correspondance. It's very interesting, because what we are finding also does fit with the ancient texts.

378
00:52:22,390 --> 00:52:26,020
Sometimes the ancient texts lead us to go somewhere.

379
00:52:26,350 --> 00:52:33,730
Sometimes we bring more to the ancient texts, and sometimes we make the ancient texts understandable,

380
00:52:34,030 --> 00:52:40,240
which were very difficult to understand without what we found there.

381
00:52:40,750 --> 00:52:48,160
Thus, there is a dialogue between survey, excavation and prior knowledge from ancient texts.

382
00:52:48,250 --> 00:52:52,290
And so, have the excavations

383
00:52:52,300 --> 00:52:57,870
revealed, you know, things that you've been surprised about from the ancient texts?

384
00:52:58,240 --> 00:53:05,049
One of the most surprising, I would say, is the Iseum on the island of Antirhodos,

385
00:53:05,050 --> 00:53:14,080
which is highly important, because we have 100% evidence that there was a temple of Isis on Antirhodos island.

386
00:53:14,590 --> 00:53:24,880
And when you consider that Ptolemy XII was a first of the Ptolemy to add to his title Neos Dionysus,

387
00:53:25,330 --> 00:53:31,450
meaning the new Osiris, you know, and that he founded the exact temple to Isis.

388
00:53:31,870 --> 00:53:45,490
And then after, Cleopatra VII was known as the Neos Aphrodite, the new Isis, you know, Cleopatra, who was the new Isis,

389
00:53:45,640 --> 00:53:49,720
had a temple to herself near her Palace on Antirhodos Island.

390
00:53:50,170 --> 00:53:57,820
So it's quite impressive there and also we found out that,

391
00:53:57,880 --> 00:54:06,610
so this port was much bigger, much more, I would say intelligent, much more efficient

392
00:54:06,790 --> 00:54:11,870
than what it was thought to be. 

393
00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:22,000
Thank you Franck. We've got some questions from the audience, which I'll go through so that you can see them.

394
00:54:22,300 --> 00:54:27,040
I think one of the first ones is from Diana.

395
00:54:27,370 --> 00:54:31,450
She asks, how do you deal with the conservation of the statues?

396
00:54:32,830 --> 00:54:34,210
The conservation of the statues.

397
00:54:34,330 --> 00:54:43,510
We have two option whether to let them under water or to bring them on land to restore them, to soak them into fresh water

398
00:54:43,510 --> 00:54:51,100
and they will go to museums. But that we have let quite a lot of them under water, because 

399
00:54:51,100 --> 00:54:56,720
the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, 

400
00:54:56,940 --> 00:55:05,140
has a project, maybe of an underwater museum in the area of the Portus Magnus.

401
00:55:05,380 --> 00:55:13,690
Thus, it will be important to have in situ important artefact left there.

402
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:20,950
And a couple of other questions from Bruce.

403
00:55:20,970 --> 00:55:27,270
Who's asked about the pavements with the stone anchors on.

404
00:55:27,900 --> 00:55:34,530
How you know that the stone anchors were part of the pavements?

405
00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:44,820
Because we are obviously on land, you know, the substrate is made of mortar mixed with limestone,

406
00:55:45,210 --> 00:55:49,510
it's totally delimited by wood and plankings.

407
00:55:50,340 --> 00:55:55,260
And the stone anchors are part of the slabs,

408
00:55:55,290 --> 00:56:01,379
in a large area which leads towards

409
00:56:01,380 --> 00:56:04,860
the temple to Poseidon. 

410
00:56:05,450 --> 00:56:11,069
So there's a really a nice kind of juxtaposition of anchors with...

411
00:56:11,070 --> 00:56:16,440
Yes, with pavement, with use as pavement.

412
00:56:16,770 --> 00:56:21,629
Yes. Thank you. Then leading us

413
00:56:21,630 --> 00:56:29,790
to another question: Is the broken monument that you showed, the one where half of it was 500m away,

414
00:56:30,690 --> 00:56:38,339
what is the evidence that you have for these tidal waves and for these very destructive events?

415
00:56:38,340 --> 00:56:44,639
And is that textual or is that just archaeological, or? It's textual, of course.

416
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:57,540
But what is strange, we have a long text about an earthquake dating July 31st, 365, whereas,

417
00:56:57,540 --> 00:57:04,870
ships were found at the top of the temple and tens of thousands of people died from the tidal wave.

418
00:57:04,890 --> 00:57:16,080
But something interesting is that we found also evidence of earthquakes or natural disasters, which are not mentioned in the text.

419
00:57:16,360 --> 00:57:20,880
Like the destruction of the Iseum on Antirhodos Island.

420
00:57:21,270 --> 00:57:22,300
Absolutely, between 50 and 51

421
00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:35,340
this monument that has been struck by a natural disaster, the land collapsed on both parts,

422
00:57:35,340 --> 00:57:45,320
of the island, together with a wooden post which was supporting the land and everything fell and was knocked out on each part of the island.

423
00:57:45,330 --> 00:57:51,989
Thus we have written evidence of a tidal wave

424
00:57:51,990 --> 00:57:59,490
and we have also archaeological evidence of tidal wave and also earthquake, which are not mentioned into texts.

425
00:58:00,690 --> 00:58:09,350
And then there's also, I suppose, the information from the course of Jean-Philippe Goiran... 

426
00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:19,200
Absolutely, Jean-Philippe Goiran made a beautiful presentation where he could show the evidence of tidal waves in the Portus Magnus.

427
00:58:20,400 --> 00:58:27,420
Absolutely. We've had a question from Dr. Bob Bianchi who spoke the other night.

428
00:58:27,480 --> 00:58:34,290
Bob says that the architectural fragments and the sculpture that you've discovered are overwhelmingly pharaonic

429
00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:38,160
in their view, giving an appearance that was,

430
00:58:38,160 --> 00:58:42,780
do you think the city scape was pharaonic in its look?

431
00:58:43,360 --> 00:58:51,180
Do you have enough information to create a sort of artistic impression of what the colonnaded walkways may look like?

432
00:58:51,810 --> 00:58:57,690
Well, for the colonnades, yes. Because we found those red granite columns.

433
00:58:57,690 --> 00:58:59,390
We found statues

434
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:09,300
like the marble statue of Ptolemy III as Hermes, you know, thus it fits perfectly with the representation of the port of that period.

435
00:59:09,450 --> 00:59:17,760
But when you consider, for example, the temple to Poseidion, you know, it's not an Egyptian temple, though they put an obelisk in there.

436
00:59:18,060 --> 00:59:27,480
As Augustus put also two obelisk in the Caesarium, inside the Caesarium, the temenos of the Caesarium.

437
00:59:27,490 --> 00:59:36,870
But this temple is pretty much a Greek temple from its size, from its layout,

438
00:59:37,230 --> 00:59:46,860
and we have the description of the Caesarium, it doesn't fit with the description of an Egyptian temple.

439
00:59:46,860 --> 00:59:54,509
But Bob is right, there is a lot of artefacts, which have been brought from

440
00:59:54,510 --> 01:00:00,510
Heliopolis and from elsewhere, but many from Heliopolis,

441
01:00:00,510 --> 01:00:06,870
which has been from an ancient monuments, which has been used during Ptolemaic and Roman

442
01:00:06,870 --> 01:00:14,120
time in order to adorn and to build the monument and the temple of the Portus Magnus.

443
01:00:14,130 --> 01:00:22,200
So it was a mixture of, of course, Greek

444
01:00:23,400 --> 01:00:27,900
and Egyptian architecture. Absolutely.

445
01:00:28,200 --> 01:00:30,450
There is a mixture there. Very interesting.

446
01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:39,290
And do you think that there's a difference between the side of the port where the Greek and the Egyptian architecture is,

447
01:00:39,290 --> 01:00:46,310
and obviously the Roman development is that much more, much less monumental, more workaday in that way?

448
01:00:47,000 --> 01:00:53,450
Yeah. First, I think that it is the first time that you can see a port with such a layout,

449
01:00:53,450 --> 01:00:57,830
with a breakwater protruding from the land and going towards the sea.

450
01:00:57,860 --> 01:01:03,050
You know, it's not a Kibotos, the Egyptian way, a closed port.

451
01:01:03,080 --> 01:01:10,490
No, I would say it has the layout of a modern port with different port basin zones.

452
01:01:10,820 --> 01:01:22,730
And they used the natural topography in a very clever way in order to extend that port.

453
01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:35,899
And of course, the Romans were less maybe interested in cults there, than in the trade of grain in order to provide Rome with grain.

454
01:01:35,900 --> 01:01:41,200
And they extended the port in a beautiful way.

455
01:01:41,210 --> 01:01:49,640
One of the most exciting parts, for me, was something that I've not seen you talk about before,

456
01:01:49,640 --> 01:01:53,810
is the sort of the slipways and the discovery of the military port.

457
01:01:54,110 --> 01:02:00,350
We've got a question about this who wants to know

458
01:02:00,890 --> 01:02:07,160
whether you've seen any results there of ship sheds or other facilities.

459
01:02:07,400 --> 01:02:19,700
Naval facilities. No. You have to understand that everything which was left on land, you know, has been totally reused, recuperated.

460
01:02:20,390 --> 01:02:35,120
And when we found very important artefacts whether very deep into the strata, or inside the port basin when they collapsed into the port basin.

461
01:02:35,510 --> 01:02:41,630
But in such an area, which is totally, I would say, I cannot say paved, but built

462
01:02:41,900 --> 01:02:45,150
with limestone blocks of one cubic m,

463
01:02:45,170 --> 01:02:48,590
you have no strata under, of course,

464
01:02:48,770 --> 01:02:58,970
and everything which was above has been of course reused, recuperated, unfortunately. Maybe we have a chance,

465
01:02:59,090 --> 01:03:10,790
but we have to do very deep excavation at the extremity of the slipway there...

466
01:03:11,180 --> 01:03:14,270
We will do excavation,

467
01:03:14,540 --> 01:03:20,450
we have some interesting signals, but it will be a hard work to excavate, 

468
01:03:20,690 --> 01:03:25,910
ms and m of modern sediment before reaching the archaeological strata.

469
01:03:26,480 --> 01:03:29,570
So there's still lots to do, I think.

470
01:03:29,570 --> 01:03:35,870
Oh there is a lot to do. And the recent surveys that we have done with a parametric sub bottom profiler,

471
01:03:35,870 --> 01:03:43,670
shows us that there is endless work to do on shipwrecks and on these structures.

472
01:03:44,900 --> 01:03:52,370
We've probably got time for another couple of questions. And so I suppose the first one of these is from Julian Putnam,

473
01:03:52,370 --> 01:03:57,649
who asks, whether you have any new insights about the Pharos itself, the lighthouse?

474
01:03:57,650 --> 01:04:05,420
The Pharos by itself, would deserve a whole presentation.

475
01:04:05,450 --> 01:04:11,760
Absolutely. But I would like to show you two slides when you enable me?

476
01:04:11,900 --> 01:04:16,879
Course. This one, together with a text

477
01:04:16,880 --> 01:04:20,430
of Strabo, who was there.

478
01:04:22,830 --> 01:04:31,020
"At the extremity of the island of Pharos is a rock which is washed all around by the sea."

479
01:04:33,800 --> 01:04:38,930
And you have to understand that you have two passages, one main passage and one

480
01:04:38,930 --> 01:04:43,610
secondary passage. I am a sailor and I would absolutely hate,

481
01:04:44,060 --> 01:04:55,010
that there is no signal for me on that island there, with rocks just before hit there.

482
01:04:55,970 --> 01:05:09,890
And on that rocks before the western dike was built, was seen remains of a construction by Mr. Gustave Jondet, who made the whole

483
01:05:09,890 --> 01:05:18,620
bathymetrie of that area before Gustave Jondet was the chief engineer of the port of Alexandria.

484
01:05:18,920 --> 01:05:26,420
And we have a nice bathymetry and a nice description of him, saying, there is an island that must have been island there,

485
01:05:26,420 --> 01:05:28,910
with a construction on it. Interesting.

486
01:05:29,000 --> 01:05:41,840
But anyhow, I would say that my little finger tells me that it means that one day, maybe we have some clue about the lighthouse.

487
01:05:43,640 --> 01:05:46,879
Thank you. So it's there somewhere, I think.

488
01:05:46,880 --> 01:05:56,390
It's there somewhere, yes. I think probably the final question that we probably have time for tonight is from Olga.

489
01:05:56,810 --> 01:06:03,920
She says about the publication of all this material, where is it or 

490
01:06:03,920 --> 01:06:15,650
when can we expect it? We have various publications that we have done already, and the publication of this symposium

491
01:06:15,860 --> 01:06:28,040
will result in a three volume book about the Portus Magnus coming soon, I hope, but it will take some time to

492
01:06:28,370 --> 01:06:35,810
edit it but it's written and it will edited in the coming years.

493
01:06:36,170 --> 01:06:45,380
So the overall publication of the Portus Magnus...There will be an overall publication with topography,

494
01:06:45,680 --> 01:06:54,590
history, the context, the topography, the study of the artefacts and what we can detect from this.

495
01:06:55,640 --> 01:06:59,090
And so that's you and your team are working on it at the moment, which. Yes.

496
01:06:59,090 --> 01:07:03,110
Then and you know that we are working together, you know, working on this at the moment.

497
01:07:04,730 --> 01:07:08,240
Also the are various other things.

498
01:07:08,240 --> 01:07:15,440
So if you are interested in Franck's work on the Caesarium, for example, and the material that comes from that,

499
01:07:15,800 --> 01:07:24,440
Franck and I have just edited a book together which is called The Sacred Landscapes of Alexandria in the Northwest Delta.

500
01:07:25,010 --> 01:07:33,379
There's lots of papers in that, which are kind of preliminary reports that are leading towards this

501
01:07:33,380 --> 01:07:43,980
monumental publication of Francks, which will come from that. So I think now it's about 6:10,

502
01:07:44,580 --> 01:07:47,790
that we should thank you very much, Franck,

503
01:07:47,790 --> 01:07:55,290
for this incredibly insightful presentation which has taken us all around your excavations and

504
01:07:55,290 --> 01:07:59,630
the artefacts that you've recovered from it and the interpretations that we can draw from it.

505
01:07:59,640 --> 01:08:06,450
It's a truly inspirational view, I think, into what maritime archaeology can do.

506
01:08:06,810 --> 01:08:15,270
When you invest time and effort and you have a fabulous sponsor

507
01:08:15,270 --> 01:08:20,790
to kind of support the work over this 25 year long period, which is incredible.

508
01:08:21,300 --> 01:08:26,970
So thank you very much. I'd like to thank all of our audience who have watched tonight.

509
01:08:26,980 --> 01:08:37,230
I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Thank you very much for your questions and everything, so thank you, Franck.

510
01:08:37,590 --> 01:08:41,930
Thank you everybody out there. I'd like to say, good night to everybody.

511
01:08:41,940 --> 01:08:43,590
So good night. Night.