Roman Rigging Material from the Red Sea Port of Myos Hormos

Abstract

Excavation of the Roman port of Myos Hormos on the Egyptian Red Sea coast has revealed both the extent of the Roman harbour and a significant corpus of maritime artefacts. These include a relatively large quantity of rigging material such as brail‐rings and sailcloth dating from the late‐1st century BC to the middle of the 3rd century AD. These finds are important for our understanding of ancient shipping in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean regions.

© 2007 The Author

Key words:

• Red Sea
• brail‐rings
• sailcloth

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to several people who have helped with the study of this material. My colleague Ross Thomas, who has provided valuable discussion on the subject of the Erythraean Sea and its peoples; Laina Swiny for kindly providing invaluable information and discussion about the finds from the Kyrenia shipwreck; and Dr Lucy Blue for ensuring the focus of this paper has not been lost along the way.