Lucy Semaan
Telephone: 00961 3 941708
Born in Tripoli, Lebanon, Lucy studied Archaeology at the Université Libanaise in Beirut. In 2001, she obtained a MA in Journalism as part of a joint programme between the Université Libanaise (Lebanon), the Institut Français de Presse (France), and the Centre de Formation et de Perfectionnement des Journalistes (France). She followed a one month internship at the archaeological French magazine “Le Monde de la Bible” in Paris.
In 2006, and after teaching history and geography in high school for three years in Lebanon, she received a full scholarship for a MA in Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton from the Said Foundation. She worked under the supervision of Dr. Lucy Blue and graduated with distinction. Her dissertation, entitled “The role of cedar in the timber trade of the Lebanon during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age”, emphasised timber trade processes and the port city of Byblos (Lebanon) as a case study. She presented her research work at the 2008 TROPIS X symposium, Hydra, Greece. After graduating from Southampton, Lucy worked as a research assistant at the Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut (AUB).
Since 1998 Lucy has been involved in several terrestrial as well as maritime sites in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. In 2008, she participated in the underwater visual survey of the American University of Beirut (URB Seed Grant) in Beirut and North Lebanon assisting Dr. Ralph Pedersen. She was a team member in the Lake Mareotis Research Project (August 2008) under the direction of Dr. Lucy Blue and Dr. Sameh Ramses, and the Hellenic Institute of Ancient and Mediaeval Alexandrian Studies 18th mission in Alexandria under the supervision of Mr. Tzalas (November 2008). Her duties mainly included surveying, excavating, photographing, post-excavation work and report writing. During the course of her thesis, she undertook fieldwork in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In August 2013, she co-directed the first mission of underwater excavations at Ain El Mreisseh, Lebanon. In October 2013, she was the field supervisor and director of the first underwater survey mission at Anfe in Lebanon. She is also an IANTD Nitrox and Advanced/Deep diver,as well as a rescue diver with first aid qualifications.
