Speakers

Dr Chiara  ZAZZARO
Assistant Professor of Maritime Archaeology , University of Naples "L'Orientale"

Biography:

Chiara Zazzaro is an Assistant Professor of Maritime Archaeology at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", Italy. She obtained her PhD in African Archaeology from Naples Eastern University, Department of African and Arab Studies in 2006. She was a Research Fellow for the 3D laser scanning of traditional Arab boats for the National Museum of Qatar (2013) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the MARES Project: Maritime Ethnography of the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea (2008–2012). She was granted the Burgen scholarship award from the Academia Europaea (2009). Zazzaro published two books: The Ancient Red Sea Port of Adulis and the Eritrean Coastal Region: Previous Investigations and Museum Collections, as well as Red Sea Project V: Navigated Spaces, Connected Places. She also has several published articles, such as Evidence for Pharaonic Seagoing Ships at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Egypt, Super-Sized Egyptian Ships, and The MARES Project Survey of Jizan and the Farasan Islands 2010. She participated in a number of research projects, including an ongoing joint excavation project of UNO and Boston University at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Red Sea, Egypt; and conducted fieldwork research in Djibouti, Eritrea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, on the study of ancient and traditional boatbuilding techniques.

Abstract:

Pharaohs and Ottomans in the Red Sea: An Overview on Ship Timbers from Gawasis (Egypt) and the Umm Lajj Shipwreck (Saudi Arabia)

Chiara Zazzaro

The Red Sea has always been an important and strategic waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Archaeological remains of ships and their cargo inform us about trade and technology and particularly about the people who lived and navigated the Red Sea. 

Chiara Zazzaro has had the opportunity to work on two different types of material evidence from the Red Sea in the past 15 years. One is the assemblage of ship timbers from the Pharaonic harbor of Mersa Gawasis, in Egypt, which includes some of the most ancient and remarkable remains of seagoing ships and their equipment, used for carrying exotic products from the Southern Red Sea. The other is the Umm Lajj shipwreck, an eighteen-century merchantman, which was sailing back to Egypt from Saudi Arabia, carrying Indian Ocean products, including Chinese porcelain.

Over three millennia apart, important powers in Egypt: the Pharaonic and Ottoman powers were commercially ambitious as evidence reflects. Their strong nautical interests in the Red Sea were also linked to the religious surroundings and its needs. In terms of technology, so far, we have much more information on boat construction in the Red Sea area in Ancient Egypt than in the modern period. This may be due to the limited number of underwater research conducted in the Red Sea, the natural environment and the lack of ship representations for the modern period. In contrast, during the Pharaonic Era the use of recycling wood, buried boats and their representations have provided a rich documentation on boat construction. This paper aims to illustrate material evidence from Gawasis and Umm Lajj, and to discuss our knowledge of nautical archaeology in the Red Sea