Franck Goddio

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Franck Goddio (born 1947 in Casablanca, Morocco) is a French underwater archaeologist. After studying at the École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique in Paris, from which he holds a degree in mathematics and statistics, Franck Goddio held key positions as adviser for national and international organizations and various governments for over 15 years. In the early 1980s he decided to focus entirely on underwater archaeology and founded in 1985 the Institut Européen d’Archéologie Sous Marine (IEASM) in Paris.

After many years of experience in detecting and recovering in ancient shipwrecks and in searching for the remains of sunken cities, Franck Goddio has developed and improved a systematic approach to underwater archaeology. He is now one of the leading marine archaeologists in the world. In the last twenty years, Franck Goddio has found and/or excavated fourteen sunken ships of historic importance, which had been resting on the ocean bed for hundreds of years. Among them are Chinese junks dating from the 11th to the 15th century, the Spanish galleon San Diego and Napoleon Bonaparte’s flagship L’Orient.

Some of his most important discoveries have been parts of the ancient submerged Royal Quarter of Alexandria in 1996, the lost city of Herakleion, and suburbs of Canopus in the Bay of Aboukir in the year 2000.

Franck Goddio adheres to strict archaeological standards during the exploration and excavation phases and works in close co-operation with national and local authorities, archaeological experts and institutions of international renown. In 2003, in co-operation with Oxford University, the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology was founded.

Franck Goddio’s research projects have been financed by the Hilti Foundation for the last 10 years. The underwater archaeologist is author of many books, scientific articles and publications where he reports on research projects and excavations. Various exhibitions have presented the finds and made them accessible to a wide audience. In addition, several TV documentaries have been produced by Discovery Channel, Point du Jour and Spiegel TV and aired throughout the world.