Ancient workshop for construction of boats uncovered in Sinai

Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 13 Feb 2019

A Ptolemaic workshop for boat construction and repair has been uncovered in the Sinai Peninsula

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Nails uncovered

Excavations carried out by an Egyptian mission at the Tel Abu Seify archaeological site in Northern Sinai uncovered the remains of a limestone building that was once a workshop for the construction and repair of boats and vessels during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. The site is said to have been the location of the Roman fortress of Silla.

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the remains of the workshop

Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the workshop includes two dry dockyards where ships were built or repaired. But regretfully, along the span of time as the workshop lost its function, after the Nile branch passing across the area dried up, some blocks of the workshop were removed to be used in the construction of other buildings.

Remains of wooden beams, shipwrecks, bronze and iron nails of different sizes, fish bones and clay pots were found inside the workshop.

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clay pot

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fish bones

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