Speakers
Dr Osama EL-NAHAS
DG at the Central Department of Underwater Antiquities (CDUA), Ministry of Antiquities, Egypt
Biography:
Osama Moustafa Mohamed El-Nahas is President of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in Egypt; Director-General at the Central Department of Underwater Antiquities; Lecturer at the Alexandria Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Underwater Cultural Heritage (CMAUCH); and Supervisor of the Underwater Museum and Maritime Antiquities Centre project in Alexandria. He obtained his PhD in Underwater and Maritime Archaeology from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium (2009), a Fellowship in National Security and Strategy (2014) from the Faculty of National Defense, Nasser Higher Military Academy; and became a Postdoctoral Researcher at Indiana University (2015). He was Director-General of the Repatriation of Antiquities Department, Ministry of State for Antiquities, Egypt (2012/2013); and the Department of Antiquities exhibition abroad (2015). He is also a member of the Arab Archaeologists Association. El Nahas participated in several fieldworks; he was Director of Smouha Land Excavation, Alexandria, missioned by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) (2011); participated in the salvage excavation of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) in Luxor (2010); and was Supervisor of the Exhibition of Egypt's sunken treasures in Italy and Japan (2009). He has several publications, including The Underwater Archaeology in Arab Countries: Egypt's Case Study (2013), Ancient Nile Harbours, Archaeological and Technical Approach (2010), and Damietta; An Egyptian Medieval Harbor (2006).
Abstract:
Glimpses of Ancient Harbor–Engineering in Alexandria and its Environs
The past three decades of extensive underwater and coastal archaeological excavations in Alexandria and its environs revealed remains of different types of harbor works. The analysis of these remains showed in some cases tentative dates of some of the harbor works as early as the Pre-dynastic Period or Early Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt until the Late Byzantine Period. The study of building materials and techniques could help, to a large extent, in suggesting an almost accurate dating for these harbor works. The diversity of building materials and techniques represents a clue for the revolutionary development in the process of harbor–engineering.
In this paper, we will discuss the classification of the discovered harbor works according to their nature, geographic location, and function. Moreover, we will shed light on the development process of ancient harbor–engineering from the technical perspective through the study of the building materials and techniques.