Saturday, January 07, 2006

Sunken Egyptian treasure sees light of day

"Egyptian treasures from the Pharaohs' port of Herakleion, recovered after lying under the sea for centuries, will go on public show for the first time in the German capital in May, it was announced on Friday. The exhibition, titled Egypt's Sunken Treasures, will open at the Martin-Gropius-Bau museum in Berlin on May 13 for a four-month run. French explorer Franck Goddio and his team began operations to raise the remains of ships and statues from the seabed at the present-day Abu Qir bay in Alexandria in the mid-1990s. The artefacts come from the lost city of Herakleion and parts of the city of Canopus. The discoveries have helped to shed new light on the extent to which the Egyptian people, who were long ruled by foreign conquerors, were in contact with people and ideas from Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. The approximately 500 exhibits are from 1 200 to 2 700 years old and most have never been on public display. The Centre for Maritime Archaeology at Oxford University is taking part in the research work and will hold a scientific symposium in Berlin while the exhibition is showing".
This is the full item on the IOL website.

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