Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology

Underwater photogrammetry in archaeology in Egypt is a completely new experience applied for the first time on the submerged archaeological site of the lighthouse of Alexandria situated on the eastern extremity of the ancient island of Pharos at the foot of Qaitbay Fort at a depth of 2 to 9 metres. In 2009/2010, the CEAlex launched a 3D photogrammetry data-gathering programme for the virtual reassembly of broken artefacts. In 2013 and the beginning of 2014, with the support of the Honor Frost Foundation, methods were developed and refined to acquire manual photographic data of the entire underwater site of Qaitbay using a DSLR camera, simple and low cost materials to obtain a digital surface model (DSM) of the submerged site of the lighthouse, and also to create 3D models of the objects themselves, such as statues, bases of statues and architectural elements. In this paper we present the methodology used for underwater data acquisition, data processing and modelling in order to generate a DSM of the submerged site of Alexandria's ancient lighthouse. Until 2016, only about 7200 m 2 of the submerged site, which exceeds more than 13000 m 2 , was covered. One of our main objectives in this project is to georeference the site since this would allow for a very precise 3D model and for correcting the orientation of the site as regards the real-world space.

Fino a una decina d’anni fa, i nodi cruciali della storia e dell’archeologia della città di Durazzo, in Albania, restavano ancora in gran parte da chiarire: una storia densa e una ricchissima documentazione archeologica, per una città fondata dai Greci alla fine del VII secolo a.C., che fu fiorente città ellenistica e romana, capitale bizantina, ed ancora città veneziana, ottomana e comunista. Una grande città antica, che l’isolamento del regime comunista albanese ha occultato per decenni.
Le ricerche archeologiche più recenti, dovute principalmente all’instancabile lavoro di Sara Santoro, hanno contributo a far riemergere questo passato, grazie al coinvolgimento di molte e diverse competenze rappresentate da archeologi, geologi, architetti, storici ed archeometristi che, provenienti da Italia, Albania e Slovenia, hanno saputo creare un’occasione di straordinario confronto multiculturale per la valorizzazione del patrimonio di Durrës e per la “riscoperta” della sua storia.
Questo volume, dichiaratamente multidisciplinare, tenta di coglierei caratteri peculiari e millenari della città e di svilupparne diacronicamente i processi di trasformazione culturale (dall’ellenizzazione alla romanizzazione alla cristianizzazione), mediante la collazione delle fonti antiche, dei dati documentari, storici, cartografici, geomorfologici ed archeologici.

A shipwreck, designated as Ma'agan Mikhael B, was discovered in 2005 by divers about 70 m from the shoreline and at a depth of 1 m, embedded in sandy seafl oor sediments. Soon after, the shipwreck was lost in the sand. In May 2015, it was located in a survey with a chirp sub-bottom profi ler, and a water-jetting survey in August 2015 confi rmed its position. This paper discusses the detection of the Ma'agan Mikhael B shipwreck using a chirp sub-bottom profi ler.

Enhancement of underwater images and videos is an important task required in several image-based applications like survey, seafloor mapping, telepresence, documentation etc. Color correction or white balance of underwater images is the most challenging issue because of the highly-variable illumination conditions, increasing bluish shift with the depth. Another problem is the low image contrast with poorly visible details due to the scattering effects. This paper presents a fast enhancement method for non-uniformly illuminated underwater images. The method is based on the gray-world assumption applied in the Ruderman-lαβ opponent color space. The color correction is performed according to locally changing luminance and chrominance by using the summed-area table technique. Due to the low-complexity cost this method is suitable for real-time applications ensuring realistic colors of the objects, more visible details and enhanced visual quality.

Résumé : Le site la Motte 1 (Agde, Hérault), immergé dans le lit mineur du fleuve Hérault, est connu pour avoir livré une riche parure féminine datée du viiie siècle av. J.-C. associée à des vestiges d’habitats. Nous présentons ici une synthèse des résultats des fouilles récentes menées sur ce site entre 2011 et 2018.
Au moment de son occupation, l’établissement de la Motte se situait en bordure de lagune et à proximité de l’embouchure de l’Hé¬rault. Il se caractérise par près de 500 pieux de bois répartis en deux ensembles principaux localisés sur des hauts fonds, associés à de nombreux blocs de basalte qui ont pu participer de la structuration de l’occupation. Les pieux correspondent à plusieurs alignements cohérents faisant appel à une essence de bois en particulier. Les sondages réalisés permettent de les interpréter comme des systèmes de maintien et de protection de berge utilisant des techniques différentes : fascine de clayonnage et possibles piquets vivants en saule. Ils devaient protéger un habitat qui a malheureusement été fortement érodé par l’action du fleuve. L’analyse des corpus céramiques et des datations radiocarbone permet de caractériser une évolution de la fin du xe (Bronze final IIIa) au début du viiie siècle av. J.-C., avec un développement du site du sud vers le nord.
Différentes analyses (anthracologie, carpologie, paléoentomologie et archéozoologie) convergent vers la caractérisation d’un habitat pérenne occupé toute l’année, dont l’économie était prioritairement tournée vers l’agriculture et l’élevage. Délibérément implanté à l’interface entre deux milieux aux potentialités différentes, il s’insérait dans un réseau d’habitat régulièrement implanté le long du fleuve Hérault. Au sein de ce réseau, il ne semble pas constituer un site dépendant des occupations de hauteur de l’hinterland. Le travail du métal y semble en revanche une activité importante. Il est donc légitime de se demander si le site de la Motte n’a pas joué un rôle de producteur et de distributeur d’objets en bronze réalisé, au moins en partie, avec le minerai de cuivre du district de Cabrières ?

Mots-clés : Bronze final, habitat littoral, lagune, Hérault, clayonnage, céramique, chronotypologie, carpologie, entomologie, archéozoo¬logie, anthracologie, dendrochronologie.

Abstract : The site of la Motte 1 (Agde, Hérault), submerged in the minor bed of the Hérault River, is known for the discovery of rich female personal ornaments dated to the 8th century BC, associated with the remains of a settlement. We present here an overview of the results from recent excavations carried out at this site between 2011 and 2018. The issues related to the structuration of the site, to its duration and to its economy are addressed more particularly with the aim of giving thought to its place in the Late Bronze Age occupation of the lower Hérault valley.
Core sampling carried out on each bank of the river has revealed the presence of an open lagoon from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. During its occupation the la Motte site was located on the edge of the lagoon and near to the mouth of the Hérault River. It is charac-terised by nearly 500 wooden piles divided into two main groups located on shoals, connected with numerous basalt blocks that may have contributed to the structuring of the occupation.
Most of the wooden pieces that could be identified are vertical elements, piles and stakes that have been rammed into the ground. The pieces analysed reveal the use of a variety of species, reflecting the diversified use of distinct environments such as Mediterranean mixed oak forests and riparian forests. Most of these are therefore young woods, which were cut into green, unbarked wood. They reflect a simple exploitation of the forest environment in which wood is abundant.
Nearly 80% of the wood identified at the site has been identified via its anatomy. This makes it possible to carry out a spatial analysis of the site’s structure based on the nature of the wood used. Several coherent alignments using a particular wood species could thus be identified. The surveys carried out made it possible to interpret them as bank support and protection systems using different techniques: arbutus wattle supported by oak piles and possible live willow piles. In the centre was a settlement that unfortunately has been severely eroded by the action of the river. However, remains of dwellings can be identified and these suggest a building plan.
The analysis of the pottery remains found in stratigraphic surveys makes it possible to characterise the temporal evolution of the site from the end of the 10th century BC (Bronze final IIIa) to the beginning of the 8th century BC. This is confirmed by radiocarbon dating which has been the subject of Bayesian modelling. These data show a development of the site from south to north. Different shoreline stabilisation systems may have been successively implemented in response to the morphological evolution of the site and its environ¬ment.
Data on the economy of the site (anthracology, carpology, paleoentomology and archaeozoology) indicate a permanent settlement occupied all year round, whose economy was primarily oriented towards agriculture and livestock. Deliberately located at the interface between two environments with different potentialities, its inhabitants built shoreline protection systems to ensure the long-term sur¬vival of the village for at least two centuries.
The village was part of a settlement network regularly established along the Hérault River. It is also the eastern extension of the polarised lagoon settlements established around the Thau pond. Within this network, the littoral habitat of la Motte does not seem to constitute a site dependent on the settlements in elevated positions of the hinterland, as has been proposed in other Languedoc regions. Metalworking, on the other hand, seems to be an important activity. It is therefore legitimate to ask whether it may have played a role as a producer and distributor of bronze objects made, at least in part, with copper ore from the Cabrières district?

Keywords: Late Bronze Age, littoral settlement, lagoon, Hérault, wattle, ceramics, chronotypology, carpology, entomology, archaeozoo¬logy, anthracology, dendrochronology.

The idea of the Initiative is based on 20 year of topic forming and developing which culminate in paper given on World Cultural Heritage Conference EUROMED 2014 (supported and organized by ISPRS, CIPA, ICOMOS, ICOM, ICCROM) which held in November 2014 in Lemessos, Cyprus. Paper were recognise as best paper on Conference and it was awarded by first Prize of WernerWeber Award.
Paper was published in International Journal of Heritage in the Digital Era, Special Issue: EuroMed 2014 Best Papers, volume 3 number 4, 2014 by Miran Eriˇc: New reflections on the protection of World Heritage in the future: Global symbolic meaning of autochthonous and indigenous origins of water navigation, p. 597-612; [On line] Available at: https://www.academia.edu/11655103/New_reflections_on_\the_protection_of_World_Heritage_in_the_future_Global_symbolic_meaning_of_autochthonous_and_indigenous_origins_of_water_navigation

Before the previous century, the discovery of underwater archaeological sites was associated with spontaneous
discoveries made by fishermen in the space of their activity, as long as the search for the location of a shipwreck in a
part of the sea was very difficult, so that divers roam under the water, hoping to find Evidence of a shipwreck. And it
remained so until the beginning of the application of geophysical investigation techniques under water. Geological and
geophysical investigation is one of the methods used to collect data about the wrecks of sunken ships. These methods,
which are generally used in seismological investigations, enable us to map the surface of the seabed, and to determine
the presence of underwater deformations, and thus can show us the possibility of a shipwreck anchored at the bottom
of the sea. And it saves a lot of time in identifying the presence of sunken shipwrecks. We will try, through this paper,
to present the acoustic techniques, the most common techniques, which have known a rapid development in recent
years, based on a field study we carried out in the waters of the state of Tipasa.

Trinacria, the ancient name for Sicily extending back to Homeric Greek, has understandably been the focus of decades of archaeological research. Recognizing Sicily’s rich prehistory and pivotal role in the history of the Mediterranean, Sebastiano Tusa - professor, head of heritage agencies and councilor for Cultural Heritage for the Sicilian Region - promoted the exploration of the island’s heritage through international collaboration. His decades of fostering research initiatives not only produced rich archaeological results spanning the Palaeolithic to the modern era but brought scholars from a range of schools and disciplines to work together in Sicily. Through his efforts, uniquely productive methodological, theoretical and interpretative networks were created. Their impact extends far beyond Sicily and Italy.

To highlight these networks and their results, the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, the Swedish Institute in Rome, the Norwegian Institute in Rome, the British School at Rome and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali of Sicily, with generous support from the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, assembled this anthology of papers. The aim is to present a selection of the work of and results from contemporary, multi-national research projects in Sicily.

The collaboration between the Sicilian and international partners, often in an interdisciplinary framework, has generated important results and perspectives. The articles in this volume present research projects from throughout the island. The core of the articles is concerned with the Archaic through to the Roman period, but diachronic studies also trace lines back to the Stone Age and up to the contemporary era. A range of methods and sources are explored, thus creating an up-to-date volume that is a referential gateway to contemporary Sicilian archaeology.

The aim of this article is to reinterpret a well-known underwater archaeological site located at Las Amoladeras, in La Manga del Mar Menor, near Cabo de Palos. For this purpose, after a historiographical review of the existing bibliography, we have studied, contextualized and undertaken isotopic analyses of some of the most interesting material from this archaeological site, as well as a plomo monetiforme (coin-like lead token) of the same type as those recovered at Las Amoladeras and the ones that circulated in the Balearic Islands. The lead isotope analyses carried out on the aforementioned artefacts allow us to determine the origin of the ore used in the first two objects as Cartagena – Mazarrón and the Sierra Morena respectively. However, the lead used in the manufacture of the plomo monetiforme seems to reflect a mixture of metals. Based on all the above, we interpret this site as the remains of a shipwreck dating from the 50-30 B.C. that was carrying a cargo composed in part, if not almost exclusively, of metallic items, mostly lead objects, probably to be sold and recycled. Las Amoladeras can therefore be contextualized in a very specific historical and economic framework, that of the commercialization and reuse of the lead in late Republican Hispania.

Full text available from https://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/trinacria-an-island-outside-time.html

The Battle of the Aegates Islands is significant as the naval engagement that ended the First Punic War and the only ancient naval battle site that has been located in the archaeological record. The Egadi Islands survey is a collaboration between the Soprintendenza del Mare, RPM Nautical Foundation and Global Underwater Explorers, surveying an area of 270 km 2 with the main concentration of the battle spread over 4 km 2. This chapter provides an overview of the 2005-2019 maritime archaeological survey of the battle site, detailing the 23 bronze warship rams that have been found on site, along with helmets, swords and cargo. The finds reveal cross-cultural interactions in the mid-3rd century BC, as well as the earliest assemblage of Roman and Carthaginian military equipment.

At the end of the seventies, X. Nieto and F. Foerster partially excavated the
shipwreck known as Cap del Vol. On those works there were documented different characteristics
to join the frames to the hull, with no parallels in other sites. In France, since
1991 were restudied a group of shipwrecks and them showed a particular technique to
assembling frames to the hull using «internal laced technique». This group of shipwrecks
were defined by Pomey as an architectural signature in which was included Cap del Vol.
In 2011 CASC decided to restart the excavation of Cap del Vol, only excavated partially, to get knowledge about its naval architecture. This ship carried wine stocked in Pascual
1 amphorae produced in Baetulo, and was sailing to Narbona. The shipbuilding has own
features, probably related its construction to Conventus Tarraconensis shore.

3D documentation of underwater archaeological sites is an indispensable and regular part of the methodological procedure and anyone, who is considered a serious researcher, does not even think to try to reassure
the scientific community about the site's condition without entirely new methodological standards. However, 15 years ago, that was not possible and feasible. Even though the possibilities of 3D methodology were started to be explored already almost 50 years ago, this was in practice unavailable, primarily because of the enormous time of art needed for preparing stereo photogrammetric results. Moreover, also because of the very expensive equipment, which was not available for the vast majority of underwater archaeologists. That had changed when low-cost, digital, compact cameras with instant housings came on the market. The first experimental studies on the Eastern Adriatic sea in 2001, on a Roman shipwreck near the Silba Island in the Adriatic Sea, were performed.