We are talking about a topic that has always been close to my heart, Underwater Archeology and its Superintendency technicians. Underwater archeology is a branch of archeology. Because of its specificities, it requires particular investigation techniques, and depending on the field of historical and artistic interest: internal waters, wrecks of ancient submerged ships seabed … Magical rediscovered in the deep and enveloping silence of our sea a unique heritage to be enhanced. We have several sites in Italy of interest, study, research …
In 1997, the first Underwater Archeology Unit was born, Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Liguria, now Superintendence for Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Genoa and the provinces of Imperia, La Spezia and Savona, it has equipped itself with an additional tool for the research activity and a staff that actively works for the enhancement of the Italian underwater archaeological heritage and more specifically of the Ligurian territory.
The archaeologists and underwater technicians of the Superintendence carry out dives, mainly of an archaeological nature, make visual reconnaissance and inspection inspections, measurements and surveys, recovery of finds, excavations, take video-photographic documentation, make withdrawals and samples, pose signs , and also create operations for underwater archaeological work control, monitoring and / or verification of underwater archaeological sites.

STAS in Liguria is a group that carries out institutional activities for the protection, research and enhancement of the underwater archaeological heritage. It takes care of the necessary checks to protect the environment and the territory in the case of maritime works in the port area such as polluted water, obstructive objects, maritime traffic, very low visibility, and carries out research and enhancement activities on known sites which are then opened guided tourist dives. The University of Genoa also trains archeology students by holding underwater archeology excavation methodology workshops
There are two two Roman ships in the province of Imperia, two Roman ships in the province of Savona and a site that includes two Roman drums in Lerici in the province of La Spezia, all tourist-usable sites.The deepest and most valuable archaeological excavation ever carried out in Italy and perhaps in the world: a Napoleonic lifeboat at a depth of -65 meters, created thanks to the collaboration of divers of the Navy adequately trained to operate excavations with archaeological methods.

Interview with dr. Simonluca Trigona, Dir. archeological scientific responsable of STAS
dr. Marco Danielli, Technical Officer responsible for diving of the STAS staff:

1) How was the passion of underwater archaeologist born? How did you get started?
Trigona
I think underwater archeology should not be considered a pure passion, but born from the combination of two strong distinct passions: diving and the sea on one side, history and archeology on the other. The underwater archaeologist was born from the fusion of the two skills. As far as I’m concerned, I started freediving and spearfishing as a child, then in high school I developed the technique of scuba diving, following the various stages of sport diving; always in high school I started to get passionate about history and literature and this led me to the faculty of Letters with archaeological address of the Sapienza of Rome. Then, during the School of Specialization in Archeology, I realized that my two main passions could also become a job for my future: I enrolled in the 51st Course for divers of the famous Marco Polo School in Rome and I became a Technical Operator Professional diver. At that point it is only a matter of work, stubbornness and luck, first 10 years as a freelance archaeologist around Italy, then archaeologist officer in the Superintendency.

Danielli
In my case we cannot speak of passion for underwater archeology but of passion for any underwater activity. In reality, the aquatic environment has always characterized my life, starting from the birth in Genoa, a seaside town, then as a water polo competitor. During the years in the Folgore Paratrooper Brigade I have experienced the military tactical aspects of swimming and diving. Working as a diver in local service (commercial diver) in the port of Genoa I tried the construction work and underwater carpentry. In the activity of trainer for water rescue for the Genoa National Rescue Society (lifeguards training – rescue swimmer-) and the Italian Red Cross allowed me to specialize in rescue and aquatic and underwater safety. Finally I landed in the Superintendency and every day I experience the archaeological aspects of diving, especially the privilege of being able to access past worlds and try to reconstruct their events, I could say that it is a mature love.

2) Your Stas group? How many are you? Do you always work together?
Danielli
Our core is formed by an underwater archaeologist officer, dr. Simonluca Trigona who takes care of the scientific and coordination aspects, an underwater technical officer named Marco danielli who takes care of the planning, safety and conduct of the dives, an underwater art history officer d.ssa Alessandra Cabella who takes care of the conservation aspects of underwater historical and artistic artefacts. For purely work interventions, the core is reduced to the first two due to professional underwater qualifications.

3) Do you give courses to the University of Genoa to archeology students?
Danielli
For some years we have been collaborating with the faculty of archeology of Genoa in their laboratories of ‘underwater archaeological excavation methodology’. Subsequently, students can try to dive and obtain the first certifications. Those who obtain the necessary qualifications are involved in our activities as observers due to the fact that for now it is not possible in Italy to employ personnel without professional diving qualifications.

4) Tell us about your work, in particular? How is your working day divided?
Danielli
There are no identical days, it depends on the type of intervention to be carried out. In principle, given a scientific objective decided by dr. Trigona plans the intervention. The dives are planned on the basis of the depth and bottom time that the job needs. Once the dive profiles and the equipment necessary to carry out the intervention have been determined, the logistics are planned: how to get there, with which boat, with which devices for the emergency, which bodies to contact: coast guard, hyperbaric center nearby . The equipment is checked and the underwater emergency check lists are repeated. The intervention is implemented and subsequently in the debrefing the point is made on the errors and the phases to be improved.

5) Are we talking about the open excavations you are working on now?
Trigona
It would be a bit long to talk about all the ongoing activities of the STAS, as each project is intertwined with the others, carried out in parallel according to the weather, funding and priorities. In particular, the hot fronts on which we are working and planning new activities are the wrecks of Imperia and the planning of the final phase of the New Naval Museum; the excavation on the Roman ship of Albenga and the new layout of the Roman Naval Museum of Albenga; the wrecks of the Portofino Promontory Area which we hope to be able to shortly.

6) How does an underwater archaeologist train?
Danielli
Maintaining physical fitness is a personal responsibility and each one provides autonomously to train as he sees fit. Every year there is a very thorough health check that enables the activity. In general, training takes place by working on average 50/60 annual dives per operator

7) How long do you spend on reconnaissance and research?
Danielli
Usually we intervene on the reporting of sports divers and verify what it is or in the context of structured research programs on known sites. The weather is therefore widely variable also depending on the weather conditions

8) How many dives before I can retrieve a find? How does it work underwater and with what attention?
Danielli
Also in this case it depends on the visibility, the context, the weather conditions, in any case the voluminous finds such as the amphorae are harnessed with special aids which, by means of a lifting flask, allow the safe picking.

9) The most interesting discovery in recent years?
Trigona
In recent years there have been numerous new wrecks discovered in the Ligurian Sea and we now have a detailed map which makes the archaeological interest of our sea evident; discoveries are many then, but the ones that interest me most at the moment are the rediscoveries. We are digging the Roman ship of Albenga, a wreck that has made the history of international underwater archeology, and still today on this site we find finds that allow us to rewrite the history of this ship and more generally of Roman trade. At Capo Noli we found a French armed spear that sank during the battle of the same name in 1795 and inside it the entire on-board service and navigational instruments of the commander. In Portofino 3 new wrecks, the first Renaissance, the second with a particular and rare type of Gallic amphorae not documented even in the French wrecks, the third is still a surprise.

10) What is photographic documentation for?
Trigona
Underwater, especially on the seabed where we always operate below -40 m, there is no time to carry out archaeological surveys in the traditional way and the photographic documentation with the necessary precautions and new technology allows very accurate surveys. In addition, museum enhancement, teaching and dissemination are essentially based on photos and videos.

11) Is a final exhibition created? Where can you discover the discoveries that come out of the sea?
Trigona
The excavation of Capo Noli was concluded with a thematic exhibition held last year in Finale Ligure (SV), while the new Museums of Imperia and Albenga will welcome a large part of our discoveries, the report of the discoveries and our activities.

12) Future discoveries? Clues and curiosities?
Trigona
The new discoveries will be in the Portofino area, rich in wrecks of which we still know too little; we hope to be able to develop a new museum project in Santa Margherita that can collect the finds from the wrecks in the area; opening new shipwrecks to the sea for visits must necessarily also include museum and research spaces on land that can provide support for visits and allow everyone knowledge and use of archeology and the underwater world.

Avatar photo

By Sveva Manfredi Zavaglia

She is an independent curator, art advisor and international marketing management consultant. For more than 20 years, he has been a cultural designer of events related to contemporary art with particular attention to unusual spaces and interactions with other arts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Rome Central Mag
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Decline
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookie name Active

Privacy Policy

What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you register on our site or place an order. When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address or mailing address.

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways: To personalize your experience (your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs) To improve our website (we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you) To improve customer service (your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs) To process transactions Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested. To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature To send periodic emails The email address you provide for order processing, will only be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information. We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to?keep the information confidential. After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be kept on file for more than 60 days.

Do we use cookies?

Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information We use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart, understand and save your preferences for future visits, keep track of advertisements and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business. If you prefer, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still place orders by contacting customer service. Google Analytics We use Google Analytics on our sites for anonymous reporting of site usage and for advertising on the site. If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics monitoring your behaviour on our sites please use this link (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/)

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Registration

The minimum information we need to register you is your name, email address and a password. We will ask you more questions for different services, including sales promotions. Unless we say otherwise, you have to answer all the registration questions. We may also ask some other, voluntary questions during registration for certain services (for example, professional networks) so we can gain a clearer understanding of who you are. This also allows us to personalise services for you. To assist us in our marketing, in addition to the data that you provide to us if you register, we may also obtain data from trusted third parties to help us understand what you might be interested in. This ‘profiling’ information is produced from a variety of sources, including publicly available data (such as the electoral roll) or from sources such as surveys and polls where you have given your permission for your data to be shared. You can choose not to have such data shared with the Guardian from these sources by logging into your account and changing the settings in the privacy section. After you have registered, and with your permission, we may send you emails we think may interest you. Newsletters may be personalised based on what you have been reading on theguardian.com. At any time you can decide not to receive these emails and will be able to ‘unsubscribe’. Logging in using social networking credentials If you log-in to our sites using a Facebook log-in, you are granting permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location which will then be used to form a Guardian identity. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile. This will also allow us and Facebook to share your, networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Facebook account settings. If you remove the Guardian app from your Facebook settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a Google log-in, you grant permission to Google to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth, sex and location which we will then use to form a Guardian identity. You may use your picture from Google as part of your profile. This also allows us to share your networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Google account settings. If you remove the Guardian from your Google settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a twitter log-in, we receive your avatar (the small picture that appears next to your tweets) and twitter username.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

Updating your personal information

We offer a ‘My details’ page (also known as Dashboard), where you can update your personal information at any time, and change your marketing preferences. You can get to this page from most pages on the site – simply click on the ‘My details’ link at the top of the screen when you are signed in.

Online Privacy Policy Only

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

Your Consent

By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.
Save settings
Cookies settings