The rope cave at Mersa Gawasis: a preliminary report

Abstract

In the mid 1970s, Abdel Moneim Sayed discovered the remains of a Middle Kingdom harbour, known in ancient Egypt as S3ww, in Mersa Gawasis, about 22 km south of modern Safaga at the Red Sea coast. It proved to be an important site, not in the least because texts mention expeditions to Bia- Punt. In 2001, the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient in Rome, in collaboration with the University of Boston, co-directed by Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard, started the systematic investigation of the site in order to understand the organisation of seafaring in pharaonic Egypt. The site includes remains of a settlement, an industrial area and various manmade caves. Finds vary from ships timber and anchors to package material such as wooden boxes. One of the most remarkable finds, however, is the large number of rope coils, which are stored in a cave: the so-called ‘Rope Cave’ (Cave 5). Here we present some preliminary notes on this extraordinary discovery, which is dated to the Middle Kingdom...