Underwater archaeology in Greece - Discover ARCHEoPHY-Tipasa

The disciplines at the heart of this project are geophysics, geomorphology, archaeometry and underwater archaeology. One of the main objectives is training, which has been central to the project over the last two years. Among the training courses in underwater archaeology, the ARCHEoPHY project, in collaboration with the Aigina Harbour City project co-directed by K. Baika (Aix Marseille Université, Centre Camille Jullian), organized a week of intensive practical training in June 2024 on the submerged ancient port of the island of Aegina in Greece.

aimed at eight Algerian archaeological divers from various institutions (CNRA, OGEBC and universities), the aim of this collaboration was to ensure the perfecting and strengthening of capacities in underwater archaeology and prospecting using the latest technologies. These training courses are intended to support future scientific research to be carried out by these partners in Algeria, and in particular at the Tipasa archaeological site.

The courses covered terrestrial and underwater topography using a total station, photogrammetry of archaeological remains submerged in shallow water, 2D and 3D mapping using UAVs and, finally, data processing using @QGIS and @Metashape software. Trainees were also introduced to 3D optical mapping using robotics and 3D bathymetric recording with Multibeam sonar. The 50 hours of training were provided by various scientific partners, principally Aix Marseille Université and the Centre Camille Jullian, the University of Calabria in Italy (UNICAL) and the University of Zagreb in Croatia (UNIZG-FER) with the Mariteam Institute in Greece.