The Excavations at Nelson Island, Egypt. Archaeological Rescue Excavations of the University of Torino (Italy) 1997-2016

Nelson Island is located in the Mediterranean Sea, in the bay of Aboukir, 4 km off Aboukir Cape and 18 km from the centre of Alexandria. After the Battle of the Nile (1798), the British Navy occupied “Abukir Island”, which the soldiers re-named “Nelson Island” after the famous admiral. In the time of Alexander the Great, this islet now 400 metres long was, actually, the head of a long promontory connected with the mainland – the Peninsula of Abukir - by a narrow isthmus: the ruins found on the island represent, thus, only a small part of a large archaeological site now lost in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The antiquities cover the entire surface of the islet. The Italian team excavated this site from 1997 to 2016, uncovering the remnants of a Greek settlement dated to the Early Hellenistic Period (325-275 BC), built over an older Egyptian necropolis (6th-4th century BC). What makes this site especially interesting is its uniqueness: nowadays, no other cemetery of the Late Dynastic period (26th- 30th Dynasties) is known in the Governorate of Alexandria, and the Greek settlement built over the Egyptian necropolis is the only well-preserved Early-Hellenistic foundation on the Alexandrian coast. As the coeval levels of Alexandria herself are poorly preserved, this archaeological site is precious for studying and reconstructing the daily life of the Greek colonists of the period. The huge amount of data from the excavations at Nelson Island sheds new, unexpected light on the impact that the Macedonian arrival in Egypt had on the local culture, and allows us to know better the culture and the daily life of the first-generation Greek colonists who settled in the region of Alexandria at the very beginning of the Ptolemaic period.

The director of the publication project is Dr. Paolo Gallo.

Please click on the images below for larger views

Satellite image of the coast between Alexandria and Abukir Cape and location of Nelson Island

In brown, the actual coastline of the peninsula of Abukir; in yellow, the ancient coastline, now sunken with the cities of Canopus and Heracleion

Map of Nelson Island showing the excavated sectors

Amulets and other inscribed finds from the funerary equipments. Late Egyptian mummified bodies falling into the sea — Amulets and other inscribed finds from the funerary equipments.Late Egyptian mummified bodies falling into the sea

Late Egyptian burials with funerary equipment showing Egyptian and Greek imported pottery.

Early Ptolemaic table and cooking ware, Tanagra type terracotta — a, b. Early Ptolemaic table and cooking ware from Nelson Islandc. Terracotta figurines "Tanagra" type