Timmy Gambin
University of Malta, Archaeology and Classics, Faculty Member
- Classics: Ancient History and Archaeology, Nautical Archaeology, Mediterrranean Archaeology, Mediterranean Studies, Malta, Underwater Archaeology, and 15 moreAncient Ports and Harbours, Maritime History, Roman Archaeology, Maritime and Underwater Archaeology, Archaeology, Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology, Phoenician trade, Archaeology of Mediterranean Trade, Mediterranean archaeology, Archaeological survey, Ancient Mediterranean ports, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, Greek Sicily, and Phoenician Punic Archaeologyedit
- Prof Timmy Gambin joined the Department of Classics and Archaeology, at the University of Malta as a senior lecturer ... moreProf Timmy Gambin joined the Department of Classics and Archaeology, at the University of Malta as a senior lecturer in maritime archaeology 2012 and received his Associate Professorship in 2018. He graduated in History from this University and went on to attain his Masters in Maritime Archaeology and History from the University of Bristol where he also got his doctorate in Maritime Archaeology. Prof Gambin has been involved in numerous collaborative research projects. These include the PaleoMed Project with the CNRS (Aix en Provence) which is aimed at the reconstruction of ancient coastal landscapes and environments of the Maltese Islands. The Ancient Cisterns Project with CalPoly and Harvey Mudd Colleges (USA) explores underground water management systems through the use of small remote operated vehicles armed with a variety of sensors. He has also co-directed numerous offshore underwater surveys in various parts of the Mediterranean including Spain, Italy, and Croatia. Currently, he is working on the exploration and study of the archaic Phoenician Shipwreck discovered off Gozo.edit
The Atlantis Project consisted of undersea mapping activities deep water surveysthrough the use of remotesensing systems, mainly side-scan sonar, and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The results of these investigations culminated in the... more
The Atlantis Project consisted of undersea mapping activities deep water surveysthrough the use of remotesensing systems, mainly side-scan sonar, and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The results of these investigations culminated in the discovery of three shipwrecks, named Messina 1, 2 and 3. Messina 1 lies at a depth of 93 m, and consists of a low mound of mixed amphorae. Five complete examples were recovered for further study. Upon closer examination, the typologies point to a connection between the North African area and the Iberian Peninsula. The aim of this brief report is to provide a better understanding of the origin and type of the ship's cargo.
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The island of Malta is best known for its spectacular stone temples built by Neolithic farmers about 6000 years ago, who traded regularly with Sicily and other areas in the central Mediterranean. At a distance of over 100 km to the... more
The island of Malta is best known for its spectacular stone temples built by Neolithic farmers about 6000 years ago, who traded regularly with Sicily and other areas in the central Mediterranean. At a distance of over 100 km to the nearest continental land mass, it is generally assumed that Malta was unin-habited before the Neolithic period and was then occupied by competent Neolithic seafar-ing colonists. However, radiocarbon-dated pollen assemblages from fluvial sediments indicate an earlier phase of Maltese prehistory that preceded the period of the temple builders and included agriculture at a time when sea level was c. 6 m lower than the present day. These submerged coasts would have served as landing places for early navigators and offered fertile land nearby, but they have not yet been subject to systematic underwater archaeological survey. There is also the possibility of even earlier habitation at a time when Malta was connected to Sicily by dry land. Keywords
New discoveries of flat Archaic querns recovered from the cargo of a Phoenician shipwreck at a depth of 110 m in Xlendi Bay (Gozo, Maltese Islands) dated to ca. 7th century BC and millstone fragments found at Cerro del Castillo (Cádiz,... more
New discoveries of flat Archaic querns recovered from the cargo of a Phoenician shipwreck at a depth of 110 m in Xlendi Bay (Gozo, Maltese Islands) dated to ca. 7th century BC and millstone fragments found at Cerro del Castillo (Cádiz, Spain) from Phoenician material between 7th and 6th century BC share the same petrographic texture and geochemical composition. The four samples consist of vesicle-rich grey basaltic lavas with a moderate porphyritic index and a microcrystalline intergranular groundmass. Major and trace elements distributions of the investigated artifacts highlight a provenance from Pantelleria Island, which is located in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and Cape Bon (Tunisia). This rules out other important widespread sources of basic volcanic rocks that were also used for millstones in ancient times, such as Etna volcano, Iblei Mountains and the Levant. Due to its barycentric position in the Sicily Channel, Pantelleria Island could therefore have represented one of the main supplying area of volcanic millstones for the Phoenicians. The provenance from Pantelleria was already documented for other volcanic millstones in Phoenician sites and Carthaginian settlements of Sicily (e.g. Motya and Entella) and Tunisia (e.g. Utica and Carthage) and those found in the shipwreck of El Sec (off the coast of Mallorca), dated to ca. 4th century BC. The new millstones from Pantelleria discovered in (i) an older shipwreck cargo (i.e. Xlendi Bay) and (ii) the most westerly Phoenician settlement of Gadir (nowadays Cadiz, ca. 1500 km far from Pantelleria) point to widespread Phoenician trade in Pantellerian basaltic rocks in the Archaic Period. Pantelleria Island can therefore be considered as a nodal point for trade in volcanic millstones, many centuries before the Hellenistic people and the Romans would largely exploit the basaltic lavas from Etna and Iblei Mountains for the same purpose.
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Ships, Saints and Sealore: Maritime Ethnography of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. British Archaeological Reports. Archaeopress: Oxford, 2014. Pp. 170.
Link: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781905739950
Link: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781905739950
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The main aim of this chapter is to explore the fluid and evolving perceptions of the Maltese people towards the sea and the coast. To do this I will not be looking through the looking glass of literature and poetry – both often somewhat... more
The main aim of this chapter is to explore the fluid and evolving perceptions of the Maltese people towards the sea and the coast. To do this I will not be looking through the looking glass of literature and poetry – both often somewhat ‘guilty’ of over-romanticising the sea – nor will I study commercial activity through the coming and going of goods carried on trading ships. I will, however, attempt to gauge ‘maritime perceptions’ through coastal toponyms. How people perceived and indeed inhabited the landscape is reflective not just in historical documents and the archaeological record but also in the toponymy of a place, and as shall be made evident in this paper, in its legends and folklore – the latter consisting of traditional beliefs, customs, and stories that form an intricate part of a collective memory.2 Often passed orally from generation to generation, such stories are, to some degree or other, anchored in some form of historical event or at least born from the need to express a historical narrative
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This report presents the results of a research project aimed at searching for and documenting nautical charts and other maritime related maps covering the Sicily-Malta channel.116 Searches were made in collections held in a number of... more
This report presents the results of a research project aimed at searching for and documenting nautical charts and other maritime related maps covering the Sicily-Malta channel.116 Searches were made in collections held in a number of Maltese repositories, both public and private. Public repositories included the National Library of Malta, the National Archives and the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa. Furthermore, various online archives, including that of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK were also explored. All relevant maps were photographed, catalogued and presented on data cards in both hard and soft copies. It is envisaged that a number of benefits will stem from the results of this project. These include: 1. A greater awareness among researchers in both Sicily and Malta of the various maps held in the different repositories; and 2. A better understanding of the maritime cartography of the Sicily-Malta Channel through time.
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Upon the mention of underwater archaeology one's mind drifts to shipwrecks and sunken cargo lying on the seafloor. There are however other underwater sites besides shipwrecks and some of these sites are not necessarily in the sea.... more
Upon the mention of underwater archaeology one's mind drifts to shipwrecks and sunken cargo lying on the seafloor. There are however other underwater sites besides shipwrecks and some of these sites are not necessarily in the sea. Since 2006, the Department of Classics and Archaeology of the University of Malta together with California Polytechnic (CALPOLY) University from the USA have conducted an innovative project exploring wells, cisterns and water galleries in both Malta and Gozo. This project has a number of aims. Primarily, the intention of this survey is to create a record of the various systems and features used for water management in the past. The second aim (but no less important) is to train computer engineering students in robotics and control engineering. The project co-directors are Dr Timmy Gambin from the University of Malta and Professor Chris Clark from CALPOLY.peer-reviewe
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ABSTRACT Through the PaleoMed project a number of cores have been taken from key locations on the Maltese Islands with the aim of establishing various aspects related to the archipelago's historical environment. A... more
ABSTRACT Through the PaleoMed project a number of cores have been taken from key locations on the Maltese Islands with the aim of establishing various aspects related to the archipelago's historical environment. A multi-disciplinary team have been investigating a number of bodies of evidence including sediments, charcoal and shells. Through this poster I will present the results from pollen samples extracted from a section of one of the cores. The core, taken from Burmarrad, has a section that has been carbon dated to 7200-3200BP. Preliminary results from this site, one of the largest flood plains on Malta, will provide an indication of the local vegetation during this chronological window. Pollen was extracted from sediment deposits following the classical treatment method (eg Moore et al., 1990). Furthermore, identification was undertaken through the use of pollen atlases of Europe and North Africa (Reille, 1992, 1995, 1998) and Beug (2004) along with IMBE's international pollen reference collection. Pollen percentages were calculated in TILIA and the pollen percentage diagram constructed using TGView software (Grimm 2004, 2005). Current results indicate that prior to 7000BP there was a high percentage of aquatic plants, while tree and shrub counts were low. At 6900BP a large increase in Pistacia pollen is recorded, with moderate increase in Plantago (especially lanceolata), Asphodelus, Dinaflagelates and Mirco Foraminifera. At this time there is also a reduction in Cichorioideae & Charcoal in the section. A similar increase in Pistacia at around this time has also been recorded from another core in Burmarrad (Djamali et al., 2012) and in southern Sicily (Tinner et al., 2009). The date of this increase corresponds to the first recorded settlement on the Maltese Islands (circa 5500BC) as well as the climatic optimum of forest cover in the Mediterranean region (Noti et al., 2009).
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Lavas were widely used in antiquity to produce millstones. This is mainly due to their superior properties for grinding cereals and availability when compared with other rock-types. In the past four decades, several studies have been... more
Lavas were widely used in antiquity to produce millstones. This is mainly due to their superior properties for grinding cereals and availability when compared with other rock-types. In the past four decades, several studies have been published about lava millstones discovered in subaerial and submarine archaeological sites of the Central-Western Mediterranean. Although the morphological evidence of old quarries is rarely present, all these studies were aimed at recognizing provenance and manufacturing areas of the volcanic raw material. Typologies of grinding tools coexisted in different periods, even if some technological developments marked transitions between cultures. The main chronology is: Archaic saddle quern, Greek hopper-rubber (Olynthian), small to medium size rotary device (Morgantina type) and large hourglass rotary millstone (Pompeian style). Potential volcanic sources are widespread throughout the entire Mediterranean region, but two main Italian quarrying areas of ...
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This paper documents the development of an underwater robot system enabled with several mapping and localization techniques applied to a particular archaeological expedition. The goal of the expedition was to explore and map ancient... more
This paper documents the development of an underwater robot system enabled with several mapping and localization techniques applied to a particular archaeological expedition. The goal of the expedition was to explore and map ancient cisterns located on the islands of Malta and Gozo. The cisterns of interest acted as water storage systems for fortresses, private homes, and churches. Such cisterns often consisted of several connected chambers, still containing water. A sonar-equipped remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was deployed into these cisterns to obtain both video footage and sonar range measurements. Six different mapping and localization techniques were employed, including (1) sonar image mosaics using stationary sonar scans, (2) sonar image mosaics using stationary sonar scans with Smart Tether position data, (3) simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) while the vehicle was in motion, (4) SLAM using stationary sonar scans, (5) localization using previously created maps, an...
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1 Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, Italy, sbiolchi@units.it 2 ENEA, Roma, Italy 3 Departmentof Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, Italy, 4 Department of Geography,... more
1 Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, Italy, sbiolchi@units.it 2 ENEA, Roma, Italy 3 Departmentof Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, Italy, 4 Department of Geography, University of Malta 5 Department of Biology, University of Malta, 6 Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta 7 Department of Earth and Geoenvironmental Sciences, University of Bari, Italy 8 Studio geologi associati T.S.T, Messina, Italy
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This paper documents the second of two archeological expeditions that employed several underwater robot mapping and localization techniques. The goal of this project is to explore and map ancient cisterns located on the islands of Malta... more
This paper documents the second of two archeological expeditions that employed several underwater robot mapping and localization techniques. The goal of this project is to explore and map ancient cisterns located on the islands of Malta and Gozo. Dating back to 300 B.C., the cisterns of interest acted as water storage systems for fortresses, private homes, and churches. They often consisted of several connected chambers, still containing water. A Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), was deployed into cisterns to obtain video and sonar images. Using a variety of sonar based mapping techniques, two-dimensional maps of 18 different cisterns were created.
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This paper presents a complete pipeline to create accurate 3D reconstructions of underwater archaeological sites from video data captured by an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The fieldwork and data gathering for this project was... more
This paper presents a complete pipeline to create accurate 3D reconstructions of underwater archaeological sites from video data captured by an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The fieldwork and data gathering for this project was completed off the coast of the island of Malta. While in the past the data gathering process for 3D reconstructions of underwater sites has been accomplished via multiple divers and expensive photographic equipment, this project aims to automate that process. The general pipeline for creating the 3D reconstructions began with the AUV completing several low-pass missions over the site of interest (historical ship wrecks) to gather video footage from different angles. The video data was then processed through a variety of methods to generate multiple usable frames. Next, Agisoft Photoscan, a photogrammetry software, was used to create models which were stitched together or further edited for better results. Finally, the models were placed in a customdeve...
The accumulation of large boulders related to large waves generated by tsunami and extreme storm events have been observed in different areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Along the NE and E low-lying rocky coasts of Malta a tens of large... more
The accumulation of large boulders related to large waves generated by tsunami and extreme storm events have been observed in different areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Along the NE and E low-lying rocky coasts of Malta a tens of large boulder deposits have been observed (Furlani et al., 2011; Mottershead et al., 2014). In the Sicily-Malta channel heavy seas are frequent and are originated by the NE and NW winds. Few severe earthquakes and tsunamis hit historically the Maltese Archipelago, where the seismicity is related mainly to the Malta Escarpment, the Sicily Channel Rift Zone and the Hellenic Arc. A multidisciplinary study has been carried out on a large boulder deposit located between Armier Bay and Ahrax Point on the NE coast of Malta. The boulder accumulation is 100 m wide and is located on a gently sloping coast, at an altitude ranging between 0 and 5 m asl. The boulders, metric in size, are made up by limestones and are Miocene in age. An underwater surveying allowed to des...
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Abstract. Cultural Heritage (CH) resources are partial, heterogeneous, discontinuous, and subject to ongoing updates and revisions. The use of semantic web technologies associated with 3D graphical tools is proposed to improve access,... more
Abstract. Cultural Heritage (CH) resources are partial, heterogeneous, discontinuous, and subject to ongoing updates and revisions. The use of semantic web technologies associated with 3D graphical tools is proposed to improve access, exploration, exploitation and enrichment of these CH data in a standardized and more structured form. This article presents the monitoring work developed for more than ten years on the excavation of the Xlendi site. Around an exceptional shipwreck, the oldest from the Archaic period in the Western Mediterranean, we have set up a unique excavation at a depth of 110m assisted by a rigorous and continuous photogrammetry campaign. All the collected results are modelled by an ontology and visualized with virtual and augmented reality tools that allow a bidirectional link between the proposed graphical representations and the non-graphical archaeological data. It is also important to highlight the development of an innovative 3D mobile app that lets users st...
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This paper presents a method for the creation of three-dimensional maps of underwater cisterns and wells using a submersible robot equipped with two scanning sonars and a compass. Previous work in this area utilized a particle filter to... more
This paper presents a method for the creation of three-dimensional maps of underwater cisterns and wells using a submersible robot equipped with two scanning sonars and a compass. Previous work in this area utilized a particle filter to perform offline simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in two dimensions using a single sonar [11]. This work utilizes scan matching and incorporates an additional sonar that scans in a perpendicular plane. Given a set of overlapping horizontal and vertical sonar scans, an algorithm was implemented to map underwater chambers by matching sets of scans using a weighted iterative closest point (ICP) method. This matching process has been augmented to align the features of the underwater cistern data without robot odometry. Results from a swimming pool and an archeological site trials indicate successful mapping is achieved.
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The obligation to preserve underwater cultural heritage is a core principle of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. A key element of this obligation is a balance of scientific research, protection,... more
The obligation to preserve underwater cultural heritage is a core principle of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. A key element of this obligation is a balance of scientific research, protection, and the promotion of responsible access to underwater cultural heritage sites. Such a balance requires the setting up of a network of communication between the tourism and heritage sectors on the one hand and the maritime and diving communities on the other hand. A variety of approaches have been developed to promote responsible access to underwater cultural heritage sites, and since the vast majority of the public does not dive, this also includes the development of virtual access. In Malta, maritime archaeology can be traced to humble and sporadic beginnings in the 1950s. The following decades brought a growing interest in diving activities and a rising number of diving schools and clubs. Whilst Malta has today established itself as a diving touri...
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The seabed can be considered as the world’s largest museum, and underwater sites explored and studied so far provide priceless information on human interaction with the sea. In recognition of the importance of this cultural resource,... more
The seabed can be considered as the world’s largest museum, and underwater sites explored and studied so far provide priceless information on human interaction with the sea. In recognition of the importance of this cultural resource, UNESCO, in its 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, determined that objects/sites should be preserved in situ, whilst also advocating for public access and sharing. The implementation of these principles is not without difficulties. Some states have opened up underwater sites to the public—mainly through diving, yet the vast majority of the world’s population does not dive. In Malta, 7000 years of human occupation is reflected in and on the landscape, and recent offshore surveys show that the islands’ long and complex history has also left an indelible mark on the seabed. Besides difficulties related to their protection and management, these sites also present a challenge with regard to sharing and communicating. Recent...
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Abstract Despite frequent historical documents on shipping and trade routes in the Caspian Sea since early historical dates, the maritime archaeological evidence remains largely undiscovered. Exposing a shipwreck in southwest corner of... more
Abstract Despite frequent historical documents on shipping and trade routes in the Caspian Sea since early historical dates, the maritime archaeological evidence remains largely undiscovered. Exposing a shipwreck in southwest corner of the Caspian Sea at the shoreline of Qoroq village in Guilan Province of Iran provides an opportunity to study some frames of historical maritime activities in southern Caspian coasts. Sedimentological and geophysical, archaeological, and historical investigations were conducted to detect the age of the shipwreck, its probable origin and the impacts of environmental changes on preservation, exposing and damaging the ship. The results showed that the ship was broken down along its longitudinal axis and the remains were distributed along the shore where they are buried by coastal sediments. Pinus sylvestris is the tree species used in building the ship and the Caucasus Mountains was considered as a timber supply area. A combination of radiocarbon data and historical evidence showed that the ship’s construction date is mostly back to mid-18th century. It seems that the ship sunk in a high energy environment. Deposition of various types of sediments inside and around of the shipwreck suggests that the ship was dragged from the high energy environment to the current location. The hydrodynamics of the coastal area along with rapid Caspian sea-level changes were mostly responsible for preservation as well as exposing the ship.
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Submerged caves represent potential archives of speleothems with continental and marine biogenic layers. In turn, these can be used to reconstruct relative sea-level changes. This study presents new data on the tectonic behaviour of the... more
Submerged caves represent potential archives of speleothems with continental and marine biogenic layers. In turn, these can be used to reconstruct relative sea-level changes. This study presents new data on the tectonic behaviour of the island of Malta during the Holocene. These data were obtained from a speleothem sampled, during an underwater survey, at a depth of −14.5 m, inside a recently discovered submerged cave. Since the cave was mainly formed in a subaerial karst environment, the presence of a speleothem with serpulids growing on its continental layers permitted the reconstruction of the chronology for drowning of the cave. The radiocarbon dates obtained from the penultimate and last continental layers of the speleothem, before a serpulid encrustation, were compared with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and global positioning system (GPS) data, together with published sedimentological and archaeological data. The radiocarbon analyses provided an average age of 7.6 ka BP that ...
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Research Interests: Landscape Ecology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Earth Sciences, Forestry, Bioarchaeology, and 15 moreGeoarchaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Mediterranean prehistory, Fire Ecology, Cultural Landscapes, Neolithic Archaeology, Coastal and Island Archaeology, Forest Ecology, Prehistory of Malta and Gozo, Mediterranean archaeology, Colonization, Human Impact on Environment, Environmental Degradation and Sustainable Development Imacts and Response, History and archaeology, and Paleofire
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Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Geography, Palaeogeography, Geology, Geomorphology, and 15 moreGeoarchaeology, Environmental Archaeology, Maritime History, Ecology, Mediterranean, Island archaeology, Coastal and Island Archaeology, Palaeoecology, Geohistory, Island Biogeography, Holocene sea level change, Mediterranean archaeology, Islands, Insularity, and Ancient Ports and Harbours
© 2006 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2006 The Nautical Archaeology Society 347 large part of reinforced shoreline constructed around upright amphoras filled with earth and converted to ‘hards’ on the foreshore. In Roman times, the... more
© 2006 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2006 The Nautical Archaeology Society 347 large part of reinforced shoreline constructed around upright amphoras filled with earth and converted to ‘hards’ on the foreshore. In Roman times, the town on its small promontory was rimmed by an extensive lagoon with mangroves on its fringes that offered ships protection from the currents and sea-winds on the west and the open sea to the east. After 900 years of abandonment, the Islamic town was established on the eastern portion of the Roman town and in the infilled lagoonal areas. Chapter 6 describes the beachfront structures but no built features such as the hards or docks and jetties were recorded. Shoreline structures and rubbish deposits of both phases include extensive maritime components, from ballast and fishing-gear to ship parts, pulley-sheaves to brailing-rings, copper tacks, lead sheathing, line, tenons, and pitch. Other components of the same deposit include hundreds of Greek documents, some written in Latin and demotic, and a number that are written in unknown alphabets, with ostraka bearing foreign names. In addition to evidence for both local non-Egyptian and non-Mediterranean highly literate individuals, the material remains of children’s clothing and shoes, gaming-pieces, incense-burners and extensive jewellery finds testify to aspects of daily life that will provide a good complement to information about economic and bureaucratic interactions. The relative prosperity of the populations suggested by earlier excavations is clear from the calibre of materials in rubbish deposits, and a single hoard of 500 Ayyubid silver and gold coins hints at the possibilities for successful residents. A significant number of the illustrations are repeated presentations of the overall site plan, which is helpful for immediate reference when reading trench descriptions but some of the most valuable for visualizing the ancient lagoon and harbour do not appear until chapter 4 (4.13 and 4.14, and 4.4 for the island). The speedy publication of the site is to be commended and, along with the large number of contributing archaeologists, is the likely cause of errors in copy-editing and inconsistency in the bibliography. The careful work to define the Islamic town adds critical data to previous work by Whitcomb, and excavations further north in the Red Sea by Kawatoko in the Gulf of Suez, and contributes new information. The careful and extensive excavations at Myos Hormos/Quseir al Qadim provide unprecedented access to information about life and maritime activities on the Red Sea shore. Visitors to the site can see the trenches and architectural remains described in this volume, and upcoming publications will let all of us see life there as it was, documenting one of the driving forces in the development of western economies from the Roman period through the age of exploration and beyond.
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The accumulation of large boulders related to waves generated either by tsunamis or extreme storm events has been observed in different areas of the Mediterranean Sea. <br><br> Along the NE and E low-lying rocky coasts of... more
The accumulation of large boulders related to waves generated either by tsunamis or extreme storm events has been observed in different areas of the Mediterranean Sea. <br><br> Along the NE and E low-lying rocky coasts of Malta tens of large boulder deposits have been surveyed, measured and mapped. These boulders have been detached and moved from the seafloor and lowest parts of the coast by the action of sea waves. In the Sicily–Malta channel, heavy storms are common and originate from the NE and NW winds. Conversely, few severe earthquakes and tsunamis are recorded in historical documents to have hit the Maltese archipelago, originated by seismicity activity related mainly to the Malta Escarpment, the Sicily Channel Rift Zone and the Hellenic Arc. <br><br> We present a multi-disciplinary study, which aims to define the characteristics of the boulder accumulations along the eastern coast of Malta, in order to assess the coastal geo-hazard implications trigge...
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Research Interests: Archaeology, Geology, Landscape Archaeology, Maritime History, Forest Ecology And Management, and 15 moreEcology, Mediterranean, Biogeography, Forest Ecology, Island Biogeography, Port cities, Botanica, Biogeografia, Islands, Pollen analysis, NPP analysis, Insularity, Ports, Lanscape, and Malta Holocene
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Cultural Heritage (CH) resources are partial, heterogeneous, discontinuous, and subject to ongoing updates and revisions. The use of semantic web technologies associated with 3D graphical tools is proposed to improve access, exploration,... more
Cultural Heritage (CH) resources are partial, heterogeneous, discontinuous, and subject to ongoing updates and revisions. The use of semantic web technologies associated with 3D graphical tools is proposed to improve access, exploration, exploitation and enrichment of these CH data in a standardized and more structured form. This article presents the monitoring work developed for more than ten years on the excavation of the Xlendi site. Around an exceptional shipwreck, the oldest from the Archaic period in the Western Mediterranean, we have set up a unique excavation at a depth of 110m assisted by a rigorous and continuous photogrammetry campaign. All the collected results are modelled by an ontology and visualized with virtual and augmented reality tools that allow a bidirectional link between the proposed graphical representations and the non-graphical archaeological data. It is also important to highlight the development of an innovative 3D mobile app that lets users study and understand the site as well as experience sensations close to those of a diver visiting the site.