Menkaure's Sarcophagus: a previous search and the mystery of 200 boxes

I have just discovered the briefest mention of a previous search for the sarcophagus of Menkaure carried out off the coast of Cartagena in Spain.

The details are found in an 'overview' of the Cartagena-based Museo Nacional de Arqueología Marítima y Centro de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Subacuáticas complied by the director Dr Iván Negueruela.

The search took place in early 1997 and involved the museum and Centro de Buceo de la Armada (the Centre for Navy Diving). The search took place in Cartagena Bay between Las Algamecas and Faro de Navidad (Christmas Lighthouse).

Nothing was found of the Beatrice, the ship that was carrying the sarcophagus back to the British Museum, although a previously unknown wreck of a ship dated to the second half of the 19th Century was found near the lighthouse.

On 6th June 2008, the Spanish newspaper La Verdad (see here ) interviewed Dr Negueruela who humorously highlighted the poor resources devoted to the 1997 expedition.  The search, said Dr Negueruela, was carried out using a boat which was about to be scrapped and 'a flashlight'. Modern technology would make the search much easier.

However, Dr Negueruela went on to say that he believes the sarcophagus lies somewhere between Murcian coastal towns of Cabo de Palos and Mazarrón.

A look at a map will show just big an area this is. The newspaper also quotes Spanish underwater archaeologist Daniel Alonso as saying any search would be "technically complex" and would have "a low probability of success."

In the another article in the edition of the newspaper (see here) Dr Negueruela, discusses the scientific importance of the sarcophagus but then adds that of "equal or greater value could be the objects that sank in over two hundred boxes" also on the Beatrice when it sank in October 1838. " Yes, there may be some surprises," he says.

Unfortunately, he does not explain where this information comes from. However, its seems that there are quite a few local legends about what other Egyptian anitiquities cpould have been onboard the Beatrice. The newspaper mentions "pink granite sphinxes and coveted gold pieces."

For more on the story of the Lost Sarcophagus see

The Lost Sarcophagus

Is there a map showing the whereabouts of Beatrice and the Lost Sarcophagus? 

Lost Sarcophagus: Search Update

Lost Sarcophagus of Menkaure

Or take this boat trip around Cartagena Harbour:
 

EXCLUSIVE: The Lost Sarcophagus

The sarcophagus of the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Menkaura is one of history’s vanished treasures, lost in 1838 when the ship transporting it to the British Museum sank, probably in a storm. After one hundred and sixty-eight years, questions are still being asked about the loss and where exactly the ship sank. Paul Boughton reports.

It was the autumn of 1838 when the English merchant ship Beatrice set sail from Malta bound for the port of Liverpool. She never arrived. The news of the loss of the ship was reported in Lloyd’s ‘Loss and Casualty Book’.

The entry for Thursday, 31st January 1839 reads: “Beatrice, Wichelo, [the skipper of the vessel], sailed from Alexandria 20th Sept. & from Malta, 13th October for Liverpool, & has not since been heard of”.

The vessel, it seems, had simply vanished, and along with it disappeared one of history’s priceless and unique relics – the sarcophagus of the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Menkaura, builder of the third pyramid at Giza, who ruled more than four thousand years ago.

The sarcophagus was found in the “sepulchral
chamber”, now generally referred to as the permanent burial chamber. From Vyse’s Operations Carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837

 Today, the story of the Beatrice and the lost sarcophagus is only mentioned in passing, a footnote in the history books about ancient Egypt. Somewhere the sarcophagus, almost forgotten, rests on the seabed.

But in early June 2008 news broke that Dr Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, had approached the National Geographic Society to fund a search from the sarcophagus off the Spanish coast near the port of Cartagena. The Egyptian Ambassador in Madrid had met Spanish officials this month to seek their co-operation in the search, it was claimed. It was further reported that American ocean explorer Robert Ballard, famous for his discovery of the sunken R.M.S. Titanic and who is president of the Institute for Exploration, scientist emeritus from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and director of Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, has been approached to lead the search. Both Dr Hawass and Dr Ballard are ‘explorers-in-residence’ with the National Geographic Society.

Is there a map showing the whereabouts of Beatrice and the Lost Sarcophagus?

I have just discovered an intriguing piece of information - admittedly 15 years old now - which suggests a map exists which could pinpoint the whereabouts of the wreck of the Beatrice and the lost sarcophagus of Menkaure.

Briefly, the ship vanished in the autumn of 1838 while bringing back the sarcophagus from Egypt to its new home in the British Museum. Many theories have been put forward as to what happened and many wreck sites have been claimed. But I have never seen it suggested that a map exists of the wreck site - and from what seems to have been a reputable source.

The Museo Egipcio de Barcelona (The Egyptian Museum in Barcelona) is a private museum financed and run by the Jordi Clos Foundation. Every so often, stories arise that the Foundation is preparing to search for the sarcophagus. Its favoured location for the wreck is the near the Spanish deepwater port of Cartagena.

In May 1995, the director of the Clos Foundation, Adolf Luna, was interviewed in the Spanish newspaper El Pias. While discussing a plan to search for the wreck he speculates that there may have been other Egyptological treasures on the doomed Beatrice.

He says the planned hunt is "serious, is not a treasure hunt." The newspaper says the Foundation has a document - a map - which tells them where the wreck is. (La fundación, dice, dispone de un documento, "un mapa", que les ofrece garantías sobre el lugar del naufragio).

Luna is then quoted as saying: "If I did not have reliable data, we would not risk it." ("Si no fuera porque disponemos de datos fiables, no nos arriesgaríamos.")

Map or no map, for whatever the reason the search did not happen. Whether this map actually exists remains, for the moment, unknow.

See El sarcófago de Micerino (El Pais)  and El mapa de la 'Beatrice' (El Pais)

For the story so far, see The Lost Sarcophagus, Ancient Egypt magazine. December/January 2009.

See also:  The Lost Sarcophagus of Menkaure: a novel approach to the mystery and Lost Sarcophagus: Search Update