14 years of work by an international team led by the University of Malta has been shared in a website detailing each and every one of their achievements.
The website gives a photographic recollection of the Phoenician Project, and gives visitors the possibility of exploring the discoveries through a diary-like account of all the important dives that led to the Archaic discoveries.
In 2007, the Phoenician Shipwreck Project’s first discovery was due to a remote sensing survey aimed at mapping Malta’s Underwater Cultural Heritage. 110m off Xlendi Bay in Gozo, the sonor data detected a Phoenician cargo datable to the 7th century BC.
Since then, the University of Malta in collaboration with a number of international partners, have been studying what turned out to be one of the most intriguing recent underwater archaeological discoveries, with close to two metres of archaeology buried in the seabed.
Aix-Marseille University (AMU), Universita’ degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo, Laboratoire d’Informatique et Systemes, Le Centre Camille Jullian, RPM Nautical Foundation, and The Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and Marine and Continental Ecology IMBE all contributed to delivering material of the highest standard.
“This website is a collection of our trials and tribulations – of our roles that have played a significant part in making this project the success that it is”, said Project Director, Prof. Timmy Gambin.