Ahmed Galal – 2019 – CMAUCH Scholar.

To follow my childhood dream of being an archaeologist, I studied Egyptology at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University. Following my graduation in 2007 I pursued a career at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. Firstly, I worked for 4 years as an antiquities inspector at Qaitbay Fortress in Alexandria. Then for 6 years I worked at the Alexandria National Museum. Currently I am working as an inspector at the Department of Underwater Antiquities (DUA), Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt.

As a result of the collaboration between the HFF and the DUA, I was delighted to receive the HFF studentship to obtain a Masters Degree in Maritime Archaeology from the Alexandria Centre for Maritime Archaeology & Underwater Cultural Heritage, Alexandria University.

I have succeeded in this academic year in getting acquainted with many terms and academic contents related to study of marine archaeology. In the first academic year I studied the marine environment and its many natural phenomena (current-waves-sea level-salinity-humidity…) and how do these natural phenomena affect the marine antiquities. Matters related to marine antiquities were also studied such as harbours, anchors and docks.

In addition to identifying many shipwrecks around the world and many terms of seafaring and heritage management, I have also participated in a workshop about boat building traditions and maritime ethnography in Egypt, as part of TradEgy, an HFF funded project, which was very useful in learning about the traditions and customs used in the Egyptian society in building ships and boats. With the support of the HFF I also participated in the NAS online course about anchors (Anchor Recording using the Big Anchor Project online database) and of course it was a good opportunity to get more information about the study of anchors.