Podcast Episode 4: A Roman ship's boat from the Portus Magnus of Alexandria

Join the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology’s (OCMA) podcast series and dive into the fascinating world of Maritime Archaeology. In this episode, Professor Damian Robinson, Director of the OCMA, presents a small Roman boat from Alexandria.

The small boat around 6 meters long was discovered, well preserved in the sediments, by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) in the eastern harbor of Alexandria, the ancient Portus Magnus.

Why was the boat transporting a large iron anchor at the moment it sank? This episode delivers fascinating details about this rare archaeological find.

Since the early 1990s Franck Goddio and the IEASM, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and the Hilti Foundation, have explored the submerged remains of the ancient sunken cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus off the coast of Egypt and the Portus Magnus of Alexandria and its sunken royal quarter.

The episode is also available on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.

About the Oxford Institute for Maritime Archaeology

The OCMA was established in 2003 as a collaborative venture by the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) under the direction of Franck Goddio, and the Hilti Foundation, to create a center of expertise for Maritime Archaeology at the University. By supporting Franck Goddio and the IEASM since 1996, the Hilti Foundation has made a lasting contribution to innovation in underwater archaeological research.