Excavation reveals scale and importance of Greek city on Nile delta that dominated trade A major excavation led by the British Museum has unearthed a wealth of revealing detail about a Greek trading city in ancient Egypt. Wood from Greek ships and Egyptian figurines dedicated to a “festival of drunkenness” are among more than 10,000 ancient artefacts discovered on the site of the city of Naukratis, which was on the Nile delta. The ancient port is mentioned in the accounts of Herodotus, the Greek historian writing in the fifth century BC. The finds reveal a vast trading network befitting an international city with a history spanning 1,000 years from the seventh century BC. Dr Ross Thomas, the British Museum curator who leads the project, told the _Observer_ that Naukratis should now be viewed as “the Hong Kong of its era”. Continue reading...
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