Franck Goddio

Franck Goddio ( born 1947 in Casablanca, Morocco ) is a French underwater archaeologist who has become known for spectacular discoveries, such as the sunken Royal Quarter of Alexandria or the Spanish galleon San Diego. The trained statistician and financial advisor since 1985 runs around the globe, research and excavations in the sea as mandated by the respective States. He has assembled a numerous interdisciplinary team of experts around and works closely with governmental authorities and internationally renowned research institutes. 2009 Goddio was awarded the French Legion of Honour. In the same year he was appointed as guest lecturers of the Archaeological Institute of Oxford University. Goddio lives in Paris and Madrid.

Biography

Financial Advice

After studying statistics and mathematics at the École Nationale de la Statistique et de l' Administration Economique in Paris Goddio was sought after as a financial expert advisor to governments and international organizations like the United Nations. When he received an offer from the World Bank to collaborate in 1983, he refused and was oriented entirely new.

Underwater Archaeology

That change of heart was partly back to his grandfather Eric de Bisschop, considered the inventor of the modern catamaran. This type of boat was discovered and taken over at the Polynesian fishermen of the Pacific researchers. The books and movies of de Bisschops expeditions have Goddio in turn inspired his expeditions under water. Therefore, he made his " passion for the sea " and its " hidden treasures" to the profession and devoted himself since the early 1980s almost exclusively to his research activities in the field of underwater archeology. In 1987 he founded in Paris the private European Institute for Underwater Archaeology ( Institut Européen d' Archéologie Sous- Marine, IEASM ). His motivation: Scientific research on behalf of those countries that these projects themselves can not afford. Are financed Goddio work since 1996 by the Liechtenstein Hilti Foundation.

Through years of experience in the location and recovery of shipwrecks and since 1992 also by the search for lost cities Franck Goddio developed over time a unique research approach which makes it one of the leading marine archaeologists worldwide. In its research and rescue missions he maintains strict archaeological standards on, makes the discovered items to the public and works closely with national and local authorities, researchers and internationally renowned research institutes. Since 2003 there has been cooperation with the University of Oxford, where the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology was founded. The underwater archaeologist is the author of many books, scientific articles and publications in which he talks about his research and salvage work. In addition, several documentaries by the Discovery Channel, Point du Jour, Spiegel TV and ARTE are produced and been broadcast worldwide.

Over the past twenty years Goddio discovered more than fourteen historically valuable ships that had lain undiscovered for many centuries on the seabed. These included junks from the 11th to the 15th century, the Spanish galleon San Diego, the Royal Captain, a ship of the British East India Company and the L' Orient, the flagship of Napoleon Bonaparte. Some of his most important discoveries were parts of the sunken royal quarter of Alexandria ( 1996), and the ancient cities of Heraklion and Canopus in the Bay of Aboukir in 2000.

Goddio successful search is based on the use of modern equipment. In addition to the GPS for mapping its academic staff have developed in collaboration with the French Atomic Energy Commission a unique nuclear resonance magnetometer, based on which also operate the submarines of the French Navy.

In the Martin- Gropius- Bau in Berlin the elaborate presentation "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" was exhibited from May 13 to September 4, 2006. In a world premiere was presented there around 500 finds, salvaged Franck Goddio and his team, in cooperation with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities since 1992 expeditions along the Egyptian Mediterranean coast. 450,000 visitors attended the exhibition. Following the exhibition to Paris wandered into the Grand Palais (8 December 2006 - 16 March 2007). to Bonn / Federal Art Gallery (April 2007 - January 2008), after Madrid / Matadero ( April-December 2008), Turin / Venaria Reale ( February-May 2009) and to Yokohama / Pacifico (June - September 2009). Overall, 2.7 million people visited "Egypt's Sunken Treasures".

Artifacts of Goddio expeditions of 2010-2013 with the exhibition " Cleopatra - The Search For The Last Queen of Egypt" on tour in the USA.

Expeditions (selection)

Documentary

• Discovery Channel productions that were broadcast around the world: Cleopatra's sunken palace - in search of a legend
• Cities on the ocean floor
• Herakleion - A city emerges
• Napoleon's sunken fleet Written and directed by the German version: Thorsten Leonhardt
• The Treasure of the Royal Captain Written and directed by the German version: Thorsten Leonhardt

Literature (selection )

• Franck Goddio, J.-P. Desroches, et al.: The Treasures of San Diego, National Museums in Berlin, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Berlin, 1997, ISBN 3-87024-380-5
• Franck Goddio et al. Weisses gold, Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1997, ISBN 3-88243-537-2
• Franck Goddio: Sunken treasures. Archaeological discoveries underwater. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1931-1
• Hakan Baykal and Joachim Schüring: The luck of. In: Adventure Archaeology. Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Heidelberg 2006, 2, 14ff. ISSN 1612-9954
• Franck Goddio and Manfred Clauss (ed. ), photographs by Christoph Gerigk: Egypt's sunken treasures. Prestel Verlag, Munich 2006, 464 pp., zahlr. color illustrations, ISBN 978-3-7913-3544-5, ISBN 3-7913-3544-8
• Franck Goddio (ed.), Treasures from the seven seas, Prestel Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7913-3634-3
• Franck Goddio, Underwater Archaeology in the Canopic Region - The Topography and Excavation of Heracleion - Thonis and East Canopus (1996-2006), Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology, Oxford 2007, ISBN 978-0-9549627-3-9
• Zahi Hawass and Franck Goddio, Cleopatra - The Search for the load- Queen of Egypt, National Geographic, Washington DC 2010, ISBN 978-1-4262-0545-3