Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:
Archaeologists just recovered a collection of 2,000-year-old relics from the Mediterranean Sea, including Roman coins and a headless statue.
The artifacts date back to the Ptolemaic dynasty—a powerful Hellenistic society founded by one of Alexander the Great’s generals.
Researchers believe the underwater excavation site could be an extension of the lost city of Canopus.
Archaeologists find treasures beneath the ground we walk on every day, so it’s hard to imagine how many more incredible artifacts must be hiding in the deep blue sea. Some even believe an entire lost civilization is just waiting to be discovered.
Atlantis has long captivated humans as the legendary lost city that supposedly sank after it fell into moral decay, and while any have searched, all have failed to find the underwater remains. But though researchers haven’t found that lost civilization, they may have just discovered remains from another ancient, sunken city: Canopus.
On August 21, archaeologists worked together to pull relics from Abu Qir Bay in the Mediterranean Sea, just off the coast of northern Egypt’s major port city of Alexandria. Photos show the team fighting against the waves while securing several life-size statues being hoisted by a crane high above the waters, eventually delivering the finds safely to land.
Some of the artifacts include Romans coins, a sphinx, a priest figurine, and an unidentified headless statue. Mohamed Ismail,, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the media that the objects date back to the Ptolemaic era—a period marked by the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty and founded by one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Ptolemy I Soter. The dynasty blended Egyptian and Greek cultures, paving the way for future Hellenistic societies, and ended in 30 B.C. with the death of Cleopatra VII. The region subsequently fell under Roman rule.
According to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, the site at Abu Qir Bay may be an extension of the ancient city Canopus, which was a prominent city during the Ptolemaic era. The city is most well known for being the drafting place of the Decree of Canopus—a trilingual agreement that helped scholars decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The 2,000-year-old relics provide a snapshot into the past. And they aren’t the only ones of their kind—more artifacts allegedly sit just beneath the water’s surface. The Ministry isn’t leaving them on the sea floor out of laziness or disinterest, however. In 2001, Egypt signed UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which is a framework that seeks to protect underwater artifacts from looting, treasure hunts, and commercial exploitation. While the convention may work to preserve sunken history, it also severely restricts what can be recovered and researched.
“There’s a lot underwater, but what we’re able to bring up is limited. It’s only specific material according to strict criteria,” Sherif Fathi, Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister, said to the media. “The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage.”
NBC News reported that the remains archaeologists were allowed to recover from Abu Qir Bay are being restored, and will eventually be exhibited at the Alexandria National Museum in the Secrets of Sunken Cities exhibit.
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