Pioneering underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio delivers public lecture at HMC

On 25 September archaeologist Franck Goddio, the Director and founder of the IEASM (European Institute for Underwater Archaeology), delivered a highly engaging public lecture on his team’s underwater excavation and surveying work in Alexandria, Egypt, which has been taking place since 1992. 

The lecture, which took place in Harris Manchester College’s recently renovated chapel in front of attendees from Oxford and further afield, was entitled “The Temple to Poseidon in the Portus Magnus of Alexandria”. In the course of the hour-long talk, Goddio described IEASM’s search for a lost underwater temple in the ancient port of Alexandria.

Franck Goddio in the HMC Chapel

The event was part of the Alexandria and the Sea II conference held at HMC and organised by the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology, with Supernumerary Fellow and Tutor for Archaeology and Anthropology Dr Linda Hulin playing a key part in organising the event, and DPhil student Leonie Hoff among those presenting her research.

It follows another recent public lecture hosted in the HMC Chapel: Professor Santanu Das’s exploration of Nobel Prize-winning Indian polymath Rabindranath Tagore’s legacy for the College’s Manchester Lecture series.  

Underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio. Image: Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation