Speakers

Prof Cheryl  Ward
Director, Sadana Island Shipwreck Excavation

Biography:

Cheryl Ward is Director of the Center for Archaeology and Anthropology; and Associate Professor and Marine Archaeologist at the Department of History, Coastal Carolina University. She holds an MA and PhD in Anthropology from Texas A&M University, and an MSc in Bioarchaeology from the Institute of Archaeology, London University. She is Director of the Sadana Island Shipwreck excavation; and a Founder of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Egypt. Ward began studying the physical remains of Egyptian ships and boats in 1983, including all four boats from Dahshur, both Khufu ships, ship timbers at Lisht, the boat burials at Abydos, and seagoing ship remains from Wadi Gawasis. She has carried out fieldwork in Turkey and in the Black Sea, Mediterranean, Red Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Indian Ocean. Her recent publications include “Pharaonic ship remains at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis” in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

Abstract:

Excavations at Sadana Island: A Discussion of Egypt's Red Sea in the 18^th Century

International markets and consumption expanded traditional regional trading routes to complex systems encompassing vast areas of the world's seas by end–18^th century. In the Red Sea, Ottoman control limited direct European access to Red Sea ports and maintained a seasonally-timed sailing schedule for large ships transporting valuable cargoes. These ships, owned and operated by Egyptians, religious foundations, and the Ottoman government, served a community predominantly composed of Arabic-speaking people who shared a common cultural background that included Islam. Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities archaeologists, now working in the Underwater Section, participated in the excavation and survey of several sites relevant to this network in the Red Sea (1994–1998), principally the excavation of the Sadana Island Shipwreck (c. 1765 CE).