Apollonia. The port of Cyrene. Libyan Studies Collection 5.

Apollonia, the port of ancient Cyrene, slowly sank into the waters due to a tectonic movement that began in Late Antiquity. After a long period of neglect, its submerged remains attracted the attention of the scholarly world in the 19th century; in 1958, the first reconnaissance dives took place and a general plan was drawn up. In 1986, the French Archaeological Mission was invited by the Libyan Department of Antiquities to undertake a campaign of underwater excavations: the results were so promising that the authorities wanted to continue the experiment and extend it to other Libyan maritime sites. At Apollonia, the work would last nearly twenty years (with some interruptions, notably when conflicts raged), accumulating a considerable mass of data in fields as diverse as history, port architecture, naval architecture, furniture, ceramology, statuary, etc.

The authors of this work, all members of the MAFL, wanted to use these pages to report on these discoveries, which have remained in the shadows until now but which renew our knowledge of a major site in the Mediterranean.