Mapping ancient water management systems

Abstract

Upon the mention of underwater archaeology one's mind drifts to shipwrecks and sunken cargo lying on the seafloor. There are however other underwater sites besides shipwrecks and some of these sites are not necessarily in the sea. Since 2006, the Department of Classics and Archaeology of the University of Malta together with California Polytechnic (CALPOLY) University from the USA have conducted an innovative project exploring wells, cisterns and water galleries in both Malta and Gozo. This project has a number of aims. Primarily, the intention of this survey is to create a record of the various systems and features used for water management in the past. The second aim (but no less important) is to train computer engineering students in robotics and control engineering. The project co-directors are Dr Timmy Gambin from the University of Malta and Professor Chris Clark from CALPOLY.