Jafar Anbar – 2018-2020 – University of Aix-Marseille MA Scholar.

In June 2018, I was awarded the HFF Scholarship at MoMarch (Master of Maritime and Coastal Archaeology) at Aix-Marseille University. With this valuable opportunity, I am one of the first two students who are studying maritime archaeology and obtaining the scientific and practical experience to start maritime archaeology studies in Syria for the first time.

I finished my BA in Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, Damascus University in 2013.

I completed my two year Masters programme MoMArch (Master of Maritime and Coastal Archaeology) at Aix-Marseille University in 2020, co-directed by Centre Camille Jullian – AMU-CNRS and the DRASSM (Département des Recherches Archéologiques Sub-aquatiques et Sous-marines) of the French Ministry of Culture.

These two years consisted of theoretical courses covering different disciplines and specialties of maritime archaeology and practical training in the laboratories of Centre Camille Jullian- CNRS, DRASSM and CEREGE Centre Européen de Recherche et D’enseignement des Géosciences de L’environnement, in addition to a professional Scientific diving course at the INPP (Institut National de Plongée Professionnelle) at Marseilles.

Moreover, I participated in 5 fieldwork projects (underwater excavations and surveys) in France and Greece covering:
– Underwater excavation at coastal sites with extended harbour infrastructure.
– Organisation of the operation at the site (following all steps from setting up until closing and covering the structures with geotextile)
– Study of the archaeological stratigraphy underwater
– Architectural study of the structures including an underwater detailed design of the blocks of the foundation of the shipshed complex and then a 3D design and reconstruction in AutoCAD.
– Participation to all different activities of coastal and underwater survey: Topography (Total Station), underwater 3D photogrammetric documentation, drone, marine geophysical survey, oceanographic survey and finally to integrate and analyse all the data in the GIS database.

(Fieldwork : MEDITERRANEO – Le Momarch, un master d’archéologie maritime et côtière)

During these two years, I was supervised by a team of professors and researchers (Prof. Jean- Christophe Sourisseau and Dr. Nicolas Carayon) for the writing of a scientific dissertation on a topic of Mediterranean coastal archaeology. The title of the Master dissertation was: The Multi-function harbour of Arwad Island on the Syrian coast.