Italy 2020 – Marina di Gioiosa Jonica – The Archeosub School Camp – Part I

The Archeosub School camp lasts more or less one week. The course combines theory, dives and visits to the different archaeological sites of the area. Basically the whole Locris area is a big archaeological park. It was a Ancient Greek colony, as the rest of Southern Italy, the so-called Great Greece. That’s how they named the diving center, Megale Hellas, which, translated, means Great Greece. Once in a while, local authorities carry out works to build a new cemetery or a new school and they need to stop and move somewhere else because they find ancient ruins. Rome must have similar problems.

Roberta Eliodoro, the lead of the camp, besides being an expert DM, is also an accomplished professional archaeologist and a passioned qualified tourist guide. With this camp, she deploys a large set of her professional skills. Some participants of the past editions were part of the Carabinieri Command for the protection of cultural heritage, or Carabinieri Art Squad, a special unit to preserve the vast Italian cultural heritage.

So, here I am, finally fulfilling my dream. We have the first theory class, about introduction and history of underwater archaeology, where she mentions the Roman Urinatores and the Caligula’s Nemi ships. Roberta shares with us her experience as professional archaeologist and shows us the primary tool, the trowel, which is used to dig carefully layer after layer to bring to the light the artifacts in the soil (or in the sand). After the introduction, we go to the water.

The first part consists of reviewing basic rules from open water and advanced courses, such as buoyancy, orientation and conspicuous landmarks.

The fun starts when we pass to the operations.