Under the supervision of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, an archaeological mission of the Faculty of Arts, University of Alexandria successfully uncovered the front part of a sunken ship on Saadana Island in the Red Sea governorate.
The mission also found the ship’s middle part of the ship and hundreds of artifacts which were part of the ship’s cargo, the ead of the Central Department of Sunken Antiquities, at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Ehab Fahmy said.
The ship was first found during excavation work in 1995 by a US mission, he said.
The archaeological mission took over excavation work at the site in 2017, with the aim of uncovering the remainder of the ship’s hull and documenting it using photogrammetric techniques and making an accurate 3D model of the ship to study its design and construction.
According to studies, Fahmy stated that this was originally a merchant ship dating to the middle of the 18th century AD.
Its cargo varied between hundreds of artifacts, which include porcelain and clay pots of various shapes and sizes, in addition to different types of cereals.
Studies also revealed that it is likely that the cause of the shipwreck was that it collided with the huge steep coral reefs present at the site, during its voyage from Southeast Asia to Egypt.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
