The module is divided into two parts. The first will deal with general topics aimed at offering an overview of the history of the discipline, the main fields of application and the peculiar characteristics of submerged sites. Ports, landings, fish ponds and, in general, the main coastal infrastructures will be illustrated. The study of wrecks and their formation processes will be tackled and current developments and methodological orientations of naval archeology will be examined. Ample space will be devoted to the methods and techniques of underwater archaeological intervention: the construction site, instrumentation, stratigraphic excavation, prospecting, positioning, documentation and new instrumental survey systems. We will offer a theoretical framework of the main recovery procedures and first conservative treatment of underwater archaeological artefacts and we will examine the regulations related to the UNESCO Convention on the protection of the underwater cultural heritage adopted in Paris in 2001 and ratified in Italy with Law 157 / 2009. At the end of this first part of the course, a review of the current guidelines of investigation and documentation of sites in deep waters will be sketched and the new frontiers of in situ enhancement of the underwater archaeological heritage will be discussed in the light of the most recent experiences gained in Europe and in the rest of the world.
In the second part of the course, reserved to the archeology and history of navigation of the Greek and Roman age, themes concerning the techniques of ancient navigation will be addressed and certain peculiar aspects of life on board and the customs connected with travel for sea of sailors.


A visit to a museum of naval archaeology will be planned during the course.

A) Required texts:

- R. Petriaggi, B. Davidde Petriaggi, Archeologia sott’acqua. Teoria e pratica, Pisa-Roma 2014 (II ed.).
- L. Fozzati (a cura di), Thalassa. Meraviglie sommerse dal Mediterraneo, Milano 2020, pp. 24-49; 73-97; 109-231.
- Lecture notes.

B) Non-attending students:

Non-attending students are required to study the compulsory texts referred to in point A) and one of the following volumes of their choice:

- P. Pomey, E. Rieth, L'archéologie navale, Paris 2005.
- T. J. Maarleveld, U. Guérin, B. Egger (eds.), Manual for Activities Directed at Underwater Cultural Heritage. Guidelines to the Annex of the UNESCO 2001 Convention, UNESCO, Paris, 2013.
Free of charge at: www.unesco.org/culture/en/underwater/pdf/UCH-Manual.pdf);
- M. Capulli, Archeologia in contesto subacqueo. Ambienti di ricerca e metodi, Udine 2021.
- P. Janni, Il mare degli Antichi, Bari 1996.