The Sadana Island shipwreck: An eighteenth-century AD merchantman off the Red Sea coast of Egypt

Abstract

In 1995-8 the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities for Egypt (SCA), excavated an Ottoman period wreck at Sadana Island on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. The 50m long hull represents a form of wooden shipbuilding hitherto undocumented for this period. The finds included a large and diverse collection of Qing Dynasty Chinese export porcelain designed for an Islamic market, as well as coffee, aromatic resin, spices, earthenware water jars, green glass bottles and other remains of cargo dating to about 1765, from a time of changing trade patterns and renewed Ottoman interest in controlling Red Sea commerce. The location of the site demonstrates that Chinese porcelain and other goods were being transported by sea north of Jeddah, the port of Mecca, a point traditionally seen as the terminus of the sea trade from the Indian Ocean during this time. Commercial interaction on a global scale was common in the later eighteenth century, but this wreck represents a part of the world about which little is known; the origins of the ship are obscure, but her crew was Muslim. The project is also important as the first major shipwreck excavation to be undertaken in Egyptian waters.