Reconstructing the Cultural Dynamics of Shallow Marine Archeological Sites through Electrical Resistivity Tomography

Geophysical prospection techniques have been extensively used in land for the documentation of archaeological sites and the reconstruction of the “hidden” build environment contributing in the cultural resources management. Despite the relative frequent employment of acoustic or seismic imaging technologies for the location of cultural relics (e.g. ship wrecks) in deep marine areas, these methods have given minimal attention to understand the dynamics of the past in shallow off-shore environments. This work explores the actual possibilities of Electrical Resistivity Tomography method in mapping submerged archaeological structures in shallow depth marine environments. The specific methodologies were applied in two different submerged archaeological sites in Crete (Greece). The analysis and integration of the ERT data managed to verify and complete the existing knowledge of the structural residues that are sink at about 0.2-1.0 meter below the surface of the sea water. These encouraging results show the potential impact of ERT that can form the basis for its further successful implementation in similar shallow off-shore sites.