“Archaeological” Treasures Including 2,400-Year-Old Fruit Uncovered in Ancient Egyptian City

(CNN) – A number of archaeological “treasures” such as Greek ceramics and 2,400-year-old wicker baskets filled with fruit were discovered in the remains of the ancient sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion, off the Egyptian coast.Thonis-Heracleion was the largest Mediterranean port in Egypt before Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 BC.

A team from the European Institute of Underwater Archeology (IEASM), led by French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio, has been studying the area for years.

The 2021 mission, carried out in close collaboration with Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, revealed “extremely interesting results” at the Thonis-Heracleion site in Aboukir Bay, the IEASM said in a statement last month. .

Along the northeast entrance channel of the submerged city, the team found the remains of a large burial mound, a Greek burial site. It was “covered in sumptuous burial offerings” dating back to the early 4th century BCE, the IEASM said.

The mound is about 60 meters long and eight meters wide, and “looks like a kind of island surrounded by canals,” the IEASM added.

“Everywhere we find evidence of burned material,” Goddio said, quoted in the IEASM statement. “Spectacular ceremonies must have been held there. The place must have been sealed for hundreds of years, as we have not found any objects later than the beginning of the 4th century BC, although the city continued to live for several hundred years after.”

Huge blocks from the destroyed Temple of Amun at Thonis-Heracleion fell on a galley, which was moored alongside, and sank it. 2nd century BC Photo: Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio / Hilti Foundation

Among the offerings, which included “imported luxury Greek pottery,” the archaeologists made an even more surprising discovery: wicker baskets that were still filled with grape seeds and doum, the fruit of an African palm tree often found in graves. according to the IEASM.

“They have remained intact underwater (for) 2,400 years, perhaps because they were once placed inside an underground room or buried shortly after being offered,” the IEASM said.

The discovery “beautifully illustrates the presence of Greek merchants and mercenaries living in Thonis-Heracleion, the city that controlled the entrance to Egypt at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the Nile,” IEASM said.

The Greeks were allowed to settle in the city during the late Pharaonic period and built their own shrines near the massive temple of Amun.

Million-year-old tree discovered intact in Greece 0:39

However, according to the researchers, several earthquakes followed by storm surge caused a 110-square-kilometer portion of the Nile Delta to sink under the sea, taking with it the cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus. The IEASM “rediscovered” Thonis-Heracleion in 2000 and Canopus in 1999.

The god Bes was considered the protector of the people in their everyday life. He was also revered as a protector of pregnant women. Gold, 5th to 4th centuries BC, Thonis-Heracleion. Photo: Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio / Hilti Foundation

During their 2021 mission, in another area of ​​the city, Goddio and his team found a Ptolemaic galley submerged under the waters, which sank after being hit by huge blocks of the Temple of Amun, according to the IEASM.

The galley was moored in the canal that ran along the south face of the temple when the building was destroyed during a “cataclysm” in the 2nd century BC, according to the IEASM.

Falling blocks from the temple protected the sunken galley by pinning it to the bottom of the canal, which was then filled with debris. The archaeologists were able to detect the galley using “a state-of-the-art background profiler prototype,” the IEASM said. This advanced technology is capable of determining the physical properties of the seabed and defining geological information within a few meters of depth.

“Galley finds from this period remain extremely rare,” Goddio explained. “The only example to date is the Punic ship Marsala (235 BC). Before this discovery, Hellenistic ships of this type were completely unknown to archaeologists.”

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