Bronze Ring Reveals Lost Lighthouse of Alexandria

Underwater archaeologists have pulled a one-of-a-kind treasure from the seafloor off Alexandria, Egypt: a bronze signet ring engraved with an image of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The ring, the first of its kind known to exist, was found on the sunken island of Antirhodos, which once housed a lavish palace of the Ptolemaic kings.

The discovery was announced this week by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), which worked alongside Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. According to Smithsonian magazine, researchers recovered the Lighthouse of Alexandria ring from the island's submerged royal quarter, where tables were once set for the likes of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

A wonder captured in bronze

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as Pharos, stood an estimated 330 to 430 feet tall when it was completed in the third century B.C.E. It was one of the tallest humanmade structures of its time, second only to the Pyramids of Giza, and it guided sailors safely into the Mediterranean's most dangerous harbor for more than a thousand years, until earthquakes toppled it into the sea in the 14th century C.E.

Today, almost nothing of the lighthouse survives above water: physical evidence is limited to stone blocks and metal clamps scattered across 18 acres of seabed in Alexandria's Eastern Harbor. That is what makes the new find so remarkable. Its design resembles portrayals of the lighthouse on Egyptian coins from the second century C.E., and officials say this is the first time the landmark has ever been found depicted on a seal ring.

Archaeologist Isabelle Hairy, writing for the Center for Alexandrian Studies, has called ancient currency the most important documentary evidence of the lighthouse's appearance. The coins suggest the Lighthouse of Alexandria rose in three tiers: a square base, an octagonal middle section and a circular top. The bronze ring offers a fresh, independent glimpse at how the ancients pictured their own wonder.

Clues to a royal bureaucracy

The context of the find may be as telling as the artifact itself. Antirhodos was the private palace island of Alexandria's Ptolemaic rulers; the Greek geographer Strabo, visiting in the first century B.C.E., described it as lying off the artificial harbor, with both a royal palace and a small harbor of its own. Divers have also recovered tableware, amphorae, oil lamps and fragments of glassware at the site, spanning the fourth century B.C.E. through the fourth century C.E.

Because the ring was excavated in what researchers believe was the legendary palace of Antirhodos, its presence has led them to posit that the island once housed administrative offices, possibly including management of the lighthouse. In ancient Egypt, bureaucrats used signet rings to sign legal documents, and the pricey accessories advertised their owners' elite social status. Franck Goddio, IEASM's founder and president, called the discovery exceptional and said its location in a center of power makes it even more important.

Construction of the lighthouse probably began during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian general of Alexander the Great who served as Egypt's first Ptolemaic king, and wrapped up under his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The Greek architect Sostratus of Cnidos designed the revolutionary structure, often described as the world's first recorded lighthouse.

Still more to uncover

Much about the Lighthouse of Alexandria ring remains unknown: the institute's statement does not say who wore it, what exactly it was used for, or even its precise date. But the find joins a wider effort to bring the lost wonder back to life. Hairy and her colleagues at the Pharos Project are assembling a digital reconstruction from photogrammetry scans of the scattered ruins, though she has cautioned the work is still generations from completion.

For now, the ring is the closest thing to seeing the Lighthouse of Alexandria as its contemporaries saw it — a marvel of the ancient world, miniaturized onto the seal of someone powerful enough to live in a palace on the harbor. And somewhere beneath the waves off Egypt's coast, the Pharos Project's researchers suspect, more of its story is still waiting.

Source: Smithsonian: bronze ring depicts the Lighthouse of Alexandria