Schedia
Alexandria's Port Town on the Canopian Nile
A research project of the University of Göttingen and the University of Bern
"On proceeding a slight distance from Eleusis, and on the right, one comes to the canal, which leads up to Schedia. Schedia is four 'schoeni' distant from Alexandria; it is a settlement of the city, and contains the station of the cabin-boats on which the praefects sail to Upper Egypt. And at Schedia is also the station for paying duty on the goods brought down from above it and brought up from below it; and for this purpose, also, a 'schedia' has been laid across the river, from which the place has its name." (Strabon 17,1,16)
Shortly after the foundation of Alexandria, the new metropolis was connected by an artificial channel with the Canopic Nile. At the point, where the channel met the Canopic Nile, a new town, Schedia, was installed. In its important river harbour all goods coming from Upper Egypt had to be transferred on smaller vessels. Schedia seems to have been a flourishing Greek dominated polis throughout the Ptolemaic and Roman times and was populated until the Early Byzantinae period. According to inscriptions it had a huge garrison, temples and synagogue. Schedia was one of the earliest christianised towns of Egypt with an own bishops seat. Irrespective to its importance the site is still nearly unknown. Since 2003, following rescue excavations of the Egyptian Antiquities Service between 1981 and 1992, the Institutes for Classical Archaeology of the Universities of Göttingen and Köln are conducting investigations of the site.
Report on the season 2003 (English)
Report on the season 2004 (English)
Geophysical prospections 2005 (English)
Geoarchaeology 2005 - text (English)
Interim report on the seasons 2003 - 2005 (English)
Report on the season 2006 (English)
Interim report on the seasons 2003 - 2007 published in HASB (German)
Interim report on the pottery analysis (English)
Report on the fifth season 2009 (English)
Directors
Prof. Dr. Marianne Bergmann, Universität Göttingen,
Prof. Dr. Michael Heinzelmann, Universität Köln,
Funding
The first season 2003 was funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung.
From 2004 onwards the project is financed by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)
Cooperations
Supreme Council of Antiquities
University of Southampton
Centre d’Études Alexandrines
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut