In 2022, the Center for Underwater Archaeology signed a contract to implement a project funded by the National Culture Fund under the “Program for the Recovery and Development of State, Regional, and Municipal Cultural Institutions.” The main activity outlined in the project proposal was the organization of a Maritime School for Underwater Archaeologyaimed at students and/or professionals in archaeology, history, and conservation for interdisciplinary practical training.
We are pleased to share that the project implementation is nearing completion.
The School of Maritime History and Underwater Archaeology was fully focused on training in innovative, interdisciplinary methods and modern technologies used in complex underwater archaeological research.
With the project’s financial support, two full-face masks were acquired—equipped with both wired and wireless communication systems—as well as specialized software Sea View MOSAIC+SBP. This is a high-performance platform for processing geophysical data obtained through multibeam echosounders, side-scan sonar, and sub-bottom profilers. The Center has been operating with such equipment for nine years, and its effectiveness in underwater archaeological geophysical surveys has been repeatedly demonstrated.
As part of the project, two archaeology students—Zhivko Payanev, a fourth-year archaeology student at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” and Georgi Dankov, a master’s student in Archaeological Science and Human Evolution at the University of Tübingen, Germany—were certified as divers and took part in fieldwork on CUA projects.
The other two participants were conservators who successfully completed a specialized internship at the INA Research Center in Bodrum, focusing on processes such as wood desalination, impregnation, and drying techniques for artifacts recovered from a marine environment. The specialization was carried out under the auspices of INA, on the initiative and with the strong support of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Krum Batchvarov from the University of Connecticut and affiliated member of INA. Violeta Karailieva, who defended her dissertation in 2023 on archaeometric analyses of bronze vessels from the 1st–3rd century AD from Southeastern Bulgaria and has been an assistant at the National Academy of Arts since 2020, and Dana Zlatanova, who graduated in 2013 from the National Academy of Arts, Faculty of Applied Arts, Department of Conservation, with a Master of Fine Arts (Conservation and Restoration), also participated.
After successfully obtaining their diving certifications, all four participants took part in various underwater archaeological projects of the Center throughout 2023.