Dr Lucy Blue

Dr Lucy Blue is a leading maritime archaeologist in her field, a lecturer at the University of Southampton, Centre for Maritime Archaeology, and the Maritime Archaeological Director of the Honor Frost Foundation.

Dr Blue has research interests in harbours and maritime cultural landscapes mostly focused around the eastern Mediterranean, the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea. Her research relating to contemporary boat construction, their operation and use has resulted in her conducting ethnographic enquiries in India, East Africa, Oman and Yemen.

More recently Dr Blue has engaged in the challenges of building capacity with respect to maritime cultural heritage, predominantly in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa), where she has been involved with the establishment of the University of Alexandria’s Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Underwater Cultural Heritage, she has co-directed a project to map and survey the maritime archaeology of Oman, and more recently in collaboration with the University of Ulster, direct the MarEAMENA Project (Endangered Archaeology in the MENA regional coastal and maritime zone).

She has presented documentaries relating to underwater cultural heritage for the BBC, and is a Vice President of the Nautical Archaeology Society and a fellow of the Antiquaries and the Royal Geographical Society. Dr Blue’s has published over fifty volumes and articles including:

McGrail, S., Blue, L., Kentley, E. & Palmer, C. 2003 Boats of South Asia. RoutledgeCurzon.

Peacock, D. & Blue, L. (eds) 2006, Survey and Excavation at Myos Hormos – Quseir al Qadim 1999-2003. Volume 1: The Survey and Report on the Excavations. Oxbow.

Blue, L. 2007 ‘Locating the harbour: Myos Hormos/ Quseir al-Qadim: A Roman and Islamic port on the Red Sea coast of Egypt’. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 36.2: 265-281

Peacock, D.P. & Blue, L. (eds) 2007 The Eritro-British expedition to Adulis, Eritrea. Oxbow.

Blue, L. Pham, C. & Palmer, C. , 2010, ‘Traditional Boats of Vietnam, an Overview’ International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 39.2: 258-277.

Blue, L. (ed.) 2010, ‘Lake Mareotis: Reconstructing the Past’ Proceedings of the International Conference on the Archaeology of the Mareotic Region. University of Alexandria April 2008. Southampton Monograph Series No. 2. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Blue, L., Pham, C. & Palmer, C 2010, ‘Traditional Boats of Vietnam, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 39.2: 258-277.

L. Blue & E. Khalil (eds.). 2011. ‘A multidisciplinary approach to Alexandria’s economic past: The Mareotis Case Study’, Southampton Monograph Series No. 5. Oxford: Archaeopress.

D. Peacock & L. Blue (eds). 2011, ‘Myos Hormos – Quseir al-Qadim Roman and Islamic port on the Red Sea coast. Volume 2: The finds from the 1999-2003 excavations’, Southampton Monograph Series No. 6. Archaeopress. Oxford

‘Developing an integrated policy for the maritime and coastal heritage of the UAE: a collaborative approach’. Blue, L., Strutt, K., Sheehan, P., Jackson, P. &

Beech, M. 2013, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 43: 63–76
Van der Noort, R., Blue, L. et al. 2014, ‘Morgawr: a Bronze Age-type sewn-plank craft based on the Ferriby boats’ International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 43.2: 1-13

Blue, L. et al, 2014, ‘Maritime footprints: examining the maritime cultural landscape of Masirah Island, Oman, past and present’ Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 44: 53-68

Blue, L., Whitewright, J. & Cooper, J. 2017 The ubiquitous hūrī : maritime ethnography, archaeology and history in the western Indian Ocean. ISBSA 13

Beech, M.J., Strutt, K., Blue, L., Al Kaabi, A.F., Omar, W.A., El Faki, A.A., Reddy Lingareddy, A. & Martin, J. In press Ubaid-related sites of the southern Gulf revisited: the Abu Dhabi Coastal Heritage Initiative. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 46: 9-24