31st
Maamourah Survey
Our final talk today is by Mohammed Mostafa Abd el-Maguib on the Maamourah Survey in Alexandria, near Abu Qir. It was an island which King Farouk connected to the shore by a bridge and fishermen and divers have been bringing antiquities ashore for many years.
The current work of the Department of Underwater Antiquities is mapping the locations of underwater finds, including amphorae and stone anchors. There is a wide variety of amphora from Greek islands such as Rhodes and Kos, as well as some from Cyprus and as far away as the Black Sea. Shipwrecks have also been found but are not contemporaneous with the amphorae.
The stone ‘anchors’ are probably not from ships but were on-shore mooring places. Most are of limestone and some, if not used for mooring, may have been used by fishing boats on the river and canals, rather than at sea.
On the northern shore of the island are a number of stone-cut fish-tanks or basins and it seems that these were originally the remains of limestone quarries, with the remaining depressions where the rock had been cut away, being re-used as fish-tanks. The date at which the tanks were in use is still uncertain.
Mohammed ended by appealing for anyone who finds stone anchors or ship parts on their site to contact him and he invited others to undertake similar underwater archaeology.
