2,000-year-old shipwreck may be Egypt’s ‘pleasure barge’ of the last dynasty of pharaohs

Underwater archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2,000-year-old ship that may have been the luxury “tour boat” of the ancient elite while diving off the coast of Egypt.

The researchers discovered the barge in the ancient port of Alexandria, the capital of Egypt during the Ptolemaic period (304-30 BC) and later a major city during the Roman Empire’s domination of the region.

The wreck consists of several well-preserved pieces of wood, approximately 90 feet (28 meters) long, taken from a barge approximately 115 feet (35 meters) long and 22 feet (7 meters) wide, French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddiot said in a statement. He believes it was “thalamagos” (also spelled “thalamegos”), a Greek word meaning literally “cabin carrier,” which was used to describe the floating palaces of Ptolemaic Egypt.

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Goddio said his team discovered the ship’s remains in October during underwater excavations of the now-sunken ruins of the Temple of Isis. This temple was once located on the island of Antillodos, now underwater, in the “Portus Magnus”, or great port, used by Alexandria during the Ptolemaic period. The temple there was probably destroyed by an earthquake around 50 AD, and the island sank beneath the waves between the 4th and 8th centuries.

Goddio believes the pleasure barge would have had a richly decorated central cabin and would have been propelled by oars. The remains of such ships have been described by ancient writers and depicted in Egyptian art, but have never been discovered.

Among the lotuses

Huge pleasure ships were popular during Egypt’s Ptolemaic period and were described by the 1st century BC Greek geographer Strabo as transporting wealthy people to their favorite places. [Egyptian lotuses that grow in fresh water] and the shade of the leaves. ”

In Strabo’s time, Alexandria was under direct Roman control. The ancient regime change began with the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, when the navy commanded by Roman leader Octavian (later Augustus) defeated the navy of Cleopatra VII (the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty) and her lover, the Roman rebel Mark Antony.

It is unclear exactly how the newly discovered ship ended up on the island of Antillodos.

“This interesting shipwreck may have been used along the Alexandria canal, as Mr. Strabo said,” Goddio said in a statement. However, it was discovered near the underwater ruins of the Temple of Isis on Antillodos and may have been involved in the destruction there.

As a result, the researchers proposed a “ceremonial use of this barge,” Goddio said. This may have been part of the naval ceremony known as Navigatio Iside, in which a procession celebrating Isis in Roman Alexandria carried a richly decorated boat called a nabigium and paraded through the streets. The model boat represented the solar sailboat used by the Egyptian gods to navigate the heavens. (Isis was the goddess of the sea.)

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That could mean that “the ship was making the annual ritual voyage of the goddess from Portus Magnus in Alexandria to the sanctuary of Osiris at Canopus, along the Nile’s Canopic Strait,” Goddio said.

early roman egypt

The study of the shipwreck is at a very early stage, but “it will be a fascinating journey through life, religion, luxury and pleasure on the waterways of early Roman Egypt,” Goddio said.

The ship is “an amazing find,” said Timmy Gambin, a marine archaeologist at the University of Malta who also studies ancient ships and wartime wrecks. But Gambin, who was not involved in the discovery, said science has yet to determine whether the vessel is actually a thalamic animal.

“It’s still too early to determine exactly what this ship was used for,” he told LiveScience in an email.