Combining acoustic and optical cameras onboard an ROV as a detection and expertise tool for underwater preventive archaeology: a case study off Marseilles (France)

Souen Fontaine, Alex Sabastia, Jérôme Sialelli, Denis Dégez, Alexis Rochat, Marine Sadania

Abstract

The development of preventive archaeology at sea and particularly offshore has led to the establishment of a protocol for geophysical detection and in situ identification of potential maritime cultural assets. To resolve the difficulty in precisely characterising, and therefore selecting for in situ expertise, acoustic anomalies corresponding to isolated or scattered objects, which are potential indicators of homogeneous buried sites or sites that are at the surface but deteriorated or very old, a new protocol for detection and expertise using an acoustic camera mounted on an ROV was developed and tested during an archaeological suvey in the Mediterranean. The results of this work demonstrate the relevance of this method, and point to a number of possible applications.

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IMEKO-MetroArchaeo-2023-171.pdf

DOI

10.21014/tc4-ARC-2023.171

IMEKO TC

TC4 - Measurement of Electrical Quantities

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