ARTICLE IN PRESS

Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1e10

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Journal of Archaeological Science

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas

Marine electrical resistivity tomography for shipwreck detection in very shallow

water: a case study from Agropoli (Salerno, southern Italy)
Salvatore Passaro*
Istituto per lAmbiente Marino Costiero (IAMC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Calata Porta di Massa, Porto di Napoli, 80133 Napoli, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A marine electric resistivity survey was carried out over a submerged beach along the Agropoli shore
Received 31 July 2009 (Salerno, Italy) to detect buried objects of archaeological interest below the sandy seabed. We found
Received in revised form a shipwreck, a military vessel that probably sunk during the Salerno landing operations of the allied
24 January 2010
forces in the Second World War. Resistivity data provide information on the vertical and horizontal
Accepted 17 March 2010
extension of the shipwreck, which is characterized by very low calculated resistivity values (about 2e5
ohm m). Such values differ signicantly from the sand and the bedrock values (5e40 ohm m). Although
Keywords:
the presence of the shipwreck is clearly visible from geoelectric data, the joint application of electric,
Marine resistivity measurements
DEM
magnetic and multibeam bathymetric techniques reduces the ambiguities inherent in each method. As
Magnetics shown in the Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and conrmed by the Digital Elevation Model
Archaeological target detection (obtained from the processing of bathymetric data), the shipwreck extends more than 30 m in NEeSW
direction and it is about 13 m wide. The global extension of the relic is consistent with the magnetic data,
that are characterized by a magnetic anomaly with an amplitude of about 1800 nT and similar dimension,
as inferred from the estimation of source boundaries obtained from the computation of the analytic
signal. The results of our survey encourage the use of marine geoelectrical methods for the detection of
buried archaeological targets, particularly in locations where the use of seismic prospecting is not
effective (e.g. very shallow water with sandy sea-bottoms). The integration of different geophysical
methods allows to better dene the extension, depth and thickness of buried objects, suggesting that
such an approach is the most effective for underwater archaeological investigations.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction economic importance of archaeological ndings (Goodheada and

Over the last 20 years, geophysical surveys have become
fundamental to detect and locate buried archaeological targets,
particularly on land. Buried man-made features and objects, such as
walls, metals, etc., usually produce geophysical anomalies which
are recordable at the surface. Furthermore, the increasing care to
a sustainable management of the coastal zone, makes the recog-
nition of targets in very shallow water an essential objective for
regions that have a particularly important archaeological past
(Vallega, 2003; Fletcher et al., 2007). It is worth stressing that the
emplacement of coastal engineering structures (e.g. offshore
breakwaters, rubbles, etc.) strongly inuences the long-shore
dynamics of sediment transport and may result in irreversible
burial of archaeological nds under a blanket of sediments.
Therefore, it becomes essential to determine the possible presence
of archaeological targets prior to seabed developments. Due to the
* Tel.: 39 81 5423831; fax: 39 81 5423888.
E-mail address: salvatore.passaro@iamc.cnr.it
Aygen, 2007), coastal zone management and related planning
makes it necessary to implement preliminary studies over the
intervention zone. Exposed submerged objects are easily detected
by acoustic systems such as multibeam or side-scan sonar (Quinn
et al., 2000, 2005; Momber and Geen, 2000). These systems are
highly effective and allow high-resolution mapping of the seaoor
in terms of morphological (multibeam) or backscatter (side-scan
sonar) signatures. Conversely, the recognition of buried archaeo-
logical targets in marine environment is still not easy because of the
difculties to acquire sub-surface data with very high resolution,
both vertical and horizontal, as required for archaeological surveys.
Standard acoustic methods are difcult to be used in very shallow
water (depth <20 m) and, therefore, they are not particularly
suitable for archaeological purposes. As a matter of fact, multi-
channel reection seismic investigations provide fast and accurate
results when appropriate, specic instruments are used (e.g. SEA-
MAP-3D ultra-high-resolution acquisition system; see Muller et al.,
2009), while standard seismic data acquisition systems and data
processing are difcult to carry out in very shallow water. Other

0305-4403/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.004

Please cite this article in press as: Passaro, S., Marine electrical resistivity tomography for shipwreck detection in very shallow water: a..., J.
Archaeol. Sci. (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.004
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2 S. Passaro / Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1e10
mono-channel seismic systems have poor resolution (e.g., sparker
systems; see Sheriff, 1977), or are scarcely penetrative, on coarse
grain sandy seaoor (e.g. 3.5 kHz sub-bottom, 2e7 kHz chirp
modulated systems). In any case, reection seismic is still thought
the most affordable prospecting method for the detection of buried
marine archeological targets (e.g. Belfer et al., 1998; Quinn et al.,
2002; Lafferty et al., 2006; Plets et al., 2009).
Electrical Resistivity Tomography (hereafter ERT) is widely used
for terrestrial archaeological purposes, since it is suitable for
detecting walls, caves, etc., at different depths (Leucci et al., 2007,
Compare et al., 2009). In particular, the method is used coupled
with other techniques, e.g. with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
data in integrated geophysical surveys (Conyers and Goodman,
1997; Pipan et al., 1999; Nuzzo et al., 2002, 2009; Leucci, 2006),
and has been widely used for the discovery of anthropogenic
objects. In this sense, it is a useful tool for planning and conducting
archaeological excavation. Marine electrical resistivity methods
(Baumgartner, 1996; Baumgartner and Christensen, 1998; Yang
et al., 2002) like their terrestrial equivalents, exploit the contrasts
in material properties to identify possible target (anomaly) loca-
tions. Recently, electrical methods have been particularly used to
clarify the spatial (and temporal) distribution of freshwater and
saltwater in coastal settings (see Henderson et al., 2010, and
references therein). The marine electrical resistivity method is
known since 30 years, but its applications (and continuous
measurements in particular) are actually rare, as conrmed by the
lack of references in literature.
This paper reports a multidisciplinary survey over a submerged
beach along the Agropoli shore (Salerno, Italy), with sand at the
sea-bottom, carried out by a research team of the IAMC-CNR of
Naples. The survey has been conceived to explore the reliability of
marine continuous electrical resistivity method as an alternative, or
a complementary activity, to the seismic prospecting methods for
archaeological prospection in very shallow water.
In order to obtain information on the vertical distribution of the
resistivity anomaly, the resistivity tomography was carried out
along proles. 3D imaging, based on the 2D tomographic inversion
of the proles, permits to represent the rst 6e8 m of the sub-
surface in terms of calculated resistivity. In order to assess the
quality of the resistivity measurement, we compared electrical
Fig. 1. Location map of the acquisition zone. Datum is WGS84, projection is UTM (Zone 33). A) the Campanian region. The survey area is enclosed in the small black-lled rectangle.
B) Detail of the survey area. The black-lled polygon represents the survey area, where a coastal defense structure is actually under construction.
Please cite this article in press as: Passaro, S., Marine electrical resistivity tomography for shipwreck detection in very shallow water: a..., J.
Archaeol. Sci. (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.004
tomography with data derived from acoustic and magnetic surveys:
i.e., multibeam swath bathymetry for seaoor mapping and
magnetics. Such methods detect buried archaeological objects
when they are characterized by a contrast in the magnetic
susceptibility with respect to the surrounding sediments.
2. Geological setting
The Salerno Plain (Tyrrhenian Sea, Fig. 1) is a Plio-Pleistocenic
peri-Tyrrhenian basin extended between the Cilento Promontory
to the south and the Sorrento Peninsula to the North. Multi-
channel seismic proles and data from deep boreholes (see Sacchi
et al., 1994) show that the total thickness of the sediments of the
Salerno Bay consists in more than 1700 m, with an average
subsidence rate of 24 cm/1 ka during the post MioceneeMiddle/
Upper Pleistocene time interval. The shelf morphology is charac-
terized by a considerable tectonic inuence, as shown by the
shape of the shelf break. This is located at a distance of 2e12 km
from the coast in the northern sector, while moves farther
southward (15e25 km). Such a pattern of the shelf break is due to
the presence of a complex fault system that deeply cuts the
substrate, thus controlling the shelf break position and the
shelfeslope system morphology (see Insinga et al., 2008, and
references therein). The Agropoli coastline is situated in the
southernmost sector of the Salerno Gulf, mainly formed by
Mesozoic carbonates and Miocene ysches, but Holocene marine
sandstones, together with beach sands, also crop out. A Holocene
high-stand depositional system, related to the rising up of the sea
level during the post-Wurmian transgressive phase, lies on the
clinoform system. This high-stand interval is essentially made up
of mud, silt and clay, but tephra layers, mainly related to the
eruptions of the Mt. Vesuvio, are also present. Shallow biogenic
gas facies trapped by mud layers have also been recorded in the
high-resolution single-channel seismic proles (Budillon et al.,
2005) from the area.
The historical importance of Agropoli is testied by many
archaeological ndings, the more ancient dated 7th Century BC.
The area is located at a distance of 5 km from the important
GreekeRoman site of Paestum. Allied invasion of Italy during the
World War II, started in this coastline sector.
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S. Passaro / Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1e10 3

Table 1 compared to the sub-seaoor materials. On the other hand, the

Calendar of survey activities chosen conguration has two decisive advantages: 1) it is easier
Date/ Activity Shipwreck conditions and faster to carry out and 2) avoids problems such as the cable
period being snagged by obstacles on the seaoor. The marine cable was
8e9 June Multibeam survey (Reson Partially outcropping suspended at 1 m depth (Fig. 2). Proles reached a depth of about
2006 Seabat 8125) 6e8 m below the surface of the sea, inline spacing was 2 m. The
26e27 Magnetic survey (SEASPY Partially outcropping (less than it
dataset consists of 15 proles, 12 of which approximately parallel to
June Marine Magnetics Corporation) was during the multibeam survey)
2006 the coastline (roughly NeS oriented) and 3 tie-lines (roughly EeW).
24e26 Marine electrical resistivity Covered by sediments A total of more than 11 km of proles have been acquired, with
July (Sysca Pro Switch Iris a signicant overall coverage (5  5 m of grid cell size) of
2006 Instruments) 105,000 m2.
Spring, Diving Outcropping (also including the
2007 pivoting door)
The proles have been processed and interpolated to obtain
a plan view of the resistivity anomalies. Data processing was carried
out using the RES2Dinv software. The apparent resistivity values
3. Data and methods are calculated by using a forward modelling subroutine. In order to
convert apparent resistivity in real resistivity values, a non-linear
3.1. Positioning least-square optimisation technique has been used for the data
inversion. The technique is based on the smoothness constrained
The data acquisition (Table 1) was carried out in three different least-squares method (Loke and Barker, 1996; Loke and Dahlin,
surveys executed onboard of the Redsh vessel (Teknomar), 2002). At this point, the obtained tomographic proles were
equipped with a Fugro Seastar DGPS system. To geo-reference and interpolated by using the kriging algorithm, in order to produce
compare magnetics, electric resistivity and multibeam data, horizontal slices of the resistivity anomalies at different depth
a highly accurate positioning is necessary. Sub-meter accuracy is levels (Fig. 3). Final voxels was 5 m (x)  5 m (y)  1 m (on the z
available and highly reliable with GPS systems that are equipped for axis).
real-time kinematic corrections. During the surveys, occasional
losses of the standard NMEA GGA string transmission occurred, due
to failed connection between the cable and the acquisition unit. The
strings were removed manually by using the standard positioning
tool of the PDS2000 navigation software. In any case, Positional
(3D) Dilution Of Precision (PDOP), which is a standard parameter
used to classify GPS precision, resulted to be 0.9 on average. Such
a value of PDOP ensures a sub-metrical precision (for the on-keel
instruments) during the survey.

3.2. Marine electrical resistivity survey

The continuous marine resistivity data acquisition was carried

out using the IRIS-SYSCAL PRO switch System, equipped with a
submarine cable with graphite connectors. This system allows
a continuous transfer of data to a laptop computer by a serial or
a USB link, and a real-time display of the apparent resistivity pseudo-
section and of the voltage of each channel. Obtained measurements,
together with the GPS data, are automatically stored into a binary
le.
We used a towed mobile conguration with a 2 m, horizontally
spaced, multi-electrode marine cable (Fig. 2). A serial link between
the instrument and the central computer unit was used. Through
the Sysmar software (IRIS instruments), we were able to receive
and record real-time images of resistivity pseudo-sections. The
marine towed resistivity cables can be deployed in two different
congurations: either by dragging a cable behind a boat or by using
oating electrodes on the water surface (Loke, 1996). For this study,
we used a conguration with oating electrodes, which is prob-
lematic when there is a larger current-ow within the water layer

DGPS

M4 M3 M2 M1 A B N1 N2 N3 N4

1m
Sea surface Seafloor
Marine cable
Fig. 3. Electrical resistivity tomographic slices, obtained through the inversion of
Fig. 2. Schematic sketch of the array geometry used for the acquisition of continuous apparent resistivity pseudo-sections at 1e6 m depth. No-data values correspond to
resistivity proles. A and B are the Current electrodes, and M and N are the light grey in the color scale, while white values refer to measurements falling inside
measurement electrode pairs. the column water (r < 0.25 U m). Navigation patterns are shown in A.

Please cite this article in press as: Passaro, S., Marine electrical resistivity tomography for shipwreck detection in very shallow water: a..., J.
Archaeol. Sci. (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.004
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4 S. Passaro / Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1e10
3.3. Multibeam swath bathymetry
Multibeam data were collected with a Seabat 8125 (Reson-
Thales) echo-sounder, characterized by 240 beams, 120 of swath
coverage and a pulse frequency of 455 kHz. The system was cali-
brated with an SVP15 sound velocity probe (Navitronics), and
completed by an OCTANS VRU1000 (gyrocompass plus motion
sensor), that allowed a real-time cinematic correction of the vessel
asset, thus enabling a correct swath re-positioning at every 0.1 s.
The bathymetric data consist of 70 proles, roughly parallel to the
coastline (NS direction). The multibeam data records were pro-
cessed with a replay of the swaths, according the IHO standards
(IHO, 1998). Additionally, erroneous measurements have been
removed, and the records exported as xyz triplets. Subsequently,
they were converted from scattered measurement to an equally
spaced matrix with a grid cell size of 20  20 cm, where, at each
squared cell, we associate the average value of beams that falls
inside the cell itself. We completed the grid by simply associating
a no-data value to empty cells. Note that multibeam footprint
dimension depends on technical specics of the instrument and
depth, according the equation:
Nf D  tgSO=NB
where: Nf Nadir footprint, D depth, SO Swath Opening (in
degrees), NB number of beams in the used array. In our case, the
average value of the footprint size was 3.5 cm, which is signicantly
smaller than the resolution that is possible to obtain by using
a DGPS positioning system. To reach such a resolution (in the order
of 3e4 cm of grid cell size), a more accurate positioning system is
required (e.g., an RTK dynamic positioning system). The obtained
grid was characterized, anyway, by a 20  20 cm grid cell size. Such
result conrms the sub-metrical precision of the positioning of our
survey, as shown by the absence of mismatches between contig-
uous multibeam swaths acquired over the internal structures of the
shipwreck. Swath opening, which is 3.5  depth for the used reson
seabat 8125 multibeam, ranged 3e10 m during the survey. The
total coverage amounts to 100,000 square meters.
3.4. Magnetics
The marine magnetic method is widely applied to discover
buried targets (e.g., Quinn et al., 2002; Boyce et al., 2004; Missiaen
and Feller, 2008). Nevertheless several problems could arise from
the presence of anthropic manufacts, such as pipes. Geomagnetic
surveys were carried out using the SeaSpy magnetometer (Marine
Magnetics Corporation), with an absolute accuracy of 0.2 nT. About
8500 m of trackline magnetic data were acquired at an average
sampling rate of 1 s. The sensor was towed at a minimum distance
of 20 m from the ship, and the cruise speed did not exceed 5 knots.
The magnetometer was towed at 1 m depth below the sea level by
using two oating buoys. The eld measurements were acquired
during a relatively quiet magnetic period. A total of 13 magnetic
proles (6 roughly in the NS direction and 7 in the EW) were
recorded. Data have ensured a coverage of 130,000 square meters,
with a 10  10 m grid cell size. The magnetic data were pre-pro-
cessed as follows: 1) Navigation and Layback correction, consisting
in a re-positioning of each single measurement made by accounting
for the distance between the DGPS antenna and the magnetometer
tow-sh (20 m) 2) Diurnal variation, carried out taking into account
data referred to the LAquila (Italy, 42 N; 12 E) Geomagnetic
Observatory of the INGV. And 3) De-noising, consisting in a tie-line
levelling, done on the basis of the computation of shifts on cross-
over check values. Cross-over shifts errors resulted to be <4 nT on
average. Pre-processed data were then gridded to an interval of
Please cite this article in press as: Passaro, S., Marine electrical resistivity tomography for shipwreck detection in very shallow water: a..., J.
Archaeol. Sci. (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.004
10 m by using the Kriging algorithm. The analytic signal (Nabighian,
1972; Roest et al., 1992) helped us in the identication of the
horizontal boundary and in the determination of the exact location
of the magnetic sources. The analytic signal amplitude, A(x,y), is
calculated by taking the square root of the sum of the squares of
each of the three directional rst derivatives of the magnetic eld, T,
as follows:
jAx; yj dt=dx2 dt=dy2 dt=dz21=2
The calculation, based on the Hilbert transform, was carried out by
using the appropriate U.S.G.S. FORTRAN routine (Phillips et al.,
1993). In the absence of high-frequency noise, the local peaks are
interpreted as corners of source, and provide an accurate horizontal
locating for the magnetic sources.
4. Results
The electrical resistivity tomographic slices (Fig. 3), obtained
through the inversion of apparent resistivity pseudo-sections, show
two differently increasing resistivity trends. The rst with depth
and the second in the EeW direction. The increase of the resistivity
values with depth is due both to the passage from the water column
(r z 0.25 U m) to sandy and ysch sediments (4e30 U m) (that
contain water as well) than to the decrease of water content in
sediments. The variations in EeW direction are ascribable to the
prograding nature of the beach morphology, that makes the higher
resistivity pixels appear at shallower depth (2 m) in the eastern
sector compared to the western one. The resistivity values follow
the same, almost homogeneous, trends, with the exception of the
northernmost sector of the study. Here, a low resistivity anomaly
occurs. This anomaly starts from 2 m and is clearly visible at least
down to 5 m of depth.
The inverted proles conrm these general trends for resistivity
(Fig. 4). The low resistivity anomaly detected is characterized by
very low values (roughly the same of the water column) and by
a sharp vertical boundary. These boundaries separate the anomaly
area by the normal sedimentary contest, which is characterized, in
this point, by relatively high resistivity values (25e30 U m). A very
small stripe occupies the lateral vertical transition between the
resistive and the conductive bodies. Four sections are characterized
by the presence of this anomaly. We have tried to map the
conductive area by simply picking the planar coordinates corre-
sponding to the steepest gradients on the proles (indicated by
arrows in the proles of Fig. 4), hence dening and mapping an area
having an extension of about 25/30 m along NEeSW and 13e15 m
along NWeSE (Fig. 4).
The bathymetric range founded in the area varies between
0.98 m and 3.54 m, and shows the presence of an NS trending
relative high and three depressions of about 1 m. The shaded relief
of the northernmost area of the survey shows several NEeSW and
NWeSE almost linear trending features, emerging for 5 cm on
average from the seaoor (Fig. 5C). Magnetic data show a non-
magnetic response of the seaoor for the whole acquisition area,
with the exception of a 1800 nT anomaly detected in the northern
sector (Fig. 6A,C). Planar source boundaries of this anomaly are
identied by the computation of the analytic signal (Fig. 6Band D),
and shows a circular shape having a diameter of 40 m.
5. Discussion
The low resistivity calculated anomaly located to the northern
sector of the survey area roughly coincides with the bathymetric
anomaly of the seaoor (Fig. 5) and with the 1800 nT anomaly
detected in the residual magnetic anomaly eld map (Fig. 6), and
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S. Passaro / Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1e10 5

Fig. 4. Navigation map and picking of the coordinates (latitude and longitude) corresponding with low resistivity anomaly in inverted resistivity proles. Asterisks in the A frame
correspond to the vertical stripes detected in four proles (indicated arrows). The union of these points (lled polygon in leftmost frame) denes an area having an extension of
about 25/30 m along NEeSW, and 13e15 m along NWeSE. Datum is WGS84, projection is UTM (Zone 33).

correspond to the presence of an iron-made shipwreck, that is Photos taken during the bathymetric survey (Fig. 7A) and during
probably a landing military vessel sunk during the World War II, diving operations (Fig. 7C) suggest that the wreck could belong to
in the course of the Salerno operations. Such hypothesis was the LCT (Land Craft, Tank) class of amphibian naval vehicles. This
conrmed by successive diving carried out on the wreck (Fig. 7). is based on the presence of a well preserved pivoting door

Fig. 5. DEM (Digital Elevation Model). A: Navigation map; B: Image map of DEM, C: Shaded relief of the frame enclosed in the small rectangle in B. Linear trending features
emerging about 5 cm from the seaoor are visible. D: Comparison between DEM (dashed line) and resistivity (lled polygon) boundary anomalies. Datum is WGS84, projection is
UTM (Zone 33). Vertical datum (for depths) is the mean sea level.

Please cite this article in press as: Passaro, S., Marine electrical resistivity tomography for shipwreck detection in very shallow water: a..., J.
Archaeol. Sci. (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.004
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6 S. Passaro / Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1e10

Fig. 6. Magnetic data. A: residual magnetic anomalies and navigation patterns. B: Analytic signal. C: zoomed area of the frame indicated by the arrow in A. D: zoomed area of the
frame indicated by the arrow in B. E: comparison between Analytic Signal (dashed line) and resistivity (lled polygon) derived boundaries of the anomaly. Datum is WGS84,
projection is UTM (Zone 33).

detected on the SW side of the shipwreck and by the extension of
the wreck (Fig. 7C). Such hypothesis was also suggested by the
technicians of the Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici e Culturali
di Salerno, Benevento, Avellino e Caserta, which is the local
organization responsible for the safeguard of cultural heritage.
The northern shore of Agropoli was subjected to the allied inva-
sion (Operation Avalanche) by the U.S. 5th Army starting on 9
September, 1943. The german mobile defenses in this zone
included a railway battery mounting 132-mm guns, kept on
a track just north of Agropoli. The observation post placed on the
dominating terrain features enabled to re on the gulf, the bea-
ches, and the plain. The allied attack started without a prelimi-
nary naval or aerial bombardment, in the attempt to produce
a (failed) surprise effect, and many US and British vehicles were
sunk. Other relicts, including a rare amphibian Sherman Double
Drive Tank, have been found both onshore and (mainly) offshore
over the past 20 years all along the Salerno Gulf.
The uppermost coverage of the vessel is absent, and a part of the
internal structure of the vehicle is exposed. Small emergencies, that
are visible on the DEM in correspondence of the shipwreck, are
related to the exposure of this internal structure, that rises about
5 cm above the seaoor (Figs. 5C and 7A). This fact might be related
to the proximity of the relic to the coast that enabled the local
inhabitants to strip the uppermost coverage of the craft during
the years successive to the sinking, since they used it as an iron
reservoir. Although the target was already clearly visible from
resistivity data, a multiple approach strategy helps to reduce the
ambiguities inherent in each method and provides additional
information. The approach benets, in particular, of coupling
different data that rely on various techniques for the detection of
archaeological targets (De Domenico et al., 2006; Negri and Leucci,
2006; Leucci et al., 2007; Piro et al., 2007; Di Fiore and Chianese,
2008). The proles extracted from the resistivity horizontal slices
at different depths, the bathymetric prole extracted by DEM and

Please cite this article in press as: Passaro, S., Marine electrical resistivity tomography for shipwreck detection in very shallow water: a..., J.
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S. Passaro / Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1e10 7

Fig. 7. Photos of the relic detected during the survey. A) Wreck internal structures, acquired by the vessel; B) An image of an LCT (Land Craft, Tank) MKV (the shipwreck detected in
Agropoli should belong to this class of military vehicles, used during the avalanche operation during the WWII). C) Photo acquired during a diving more than 1 year later. The
pivoting door is almost completely emerged from the surrounding sediments.

the proles extracted by the analytic signal (the inversion algo-
rithm applied to magnetic data) are compared, in order to enhance
the presence of common features. Two anomalies, marked as AN1
and AN2 (in Fig. 8), appear in the proles extracted by ERT slices
data, but AN1 is unrelated to an intense magnetic anomaly, as in the
case of AN2 (which corresponds to the shipwreck). In addition, AN2
shows a closer correlation between the bathymetric data and the
resistivity anomaly. Further excavations in correspondences of the
AN1 anomaly detected the presence of lens of blast material.
The correlation between resistivity and bathymetric proles
which crosses the shipwreck shows the difference between the
electric response of the shipwreck itself and the adjacent litholo-
gies (Fig. 9). The horizontal axis shows the distance (in meters)
from the starting point. It is also clearly visible a resistivity peak
that has signicantly higher values. This peak corresponds to
a lateral lithologic variation, due to the presence of poorly covered
bedrock that outcrops a few meters northward of the relic.
Finally, three sedimentary depressions, roughly 1 m in depth,
are clearly visible on DEM. Two of them formed near a brush of
a coastal protection structure, currently under construction. Their
formation may be due to along-shore changes of sediment transfer
rate that are induced by the presence of this construction (Figs. 5
and 10). Two sandy bars are also visible (the changes of sediment
transport always produces gap/accumulation pairs). The shipwreck
outcrops in the northernmost depression, and its presence modies
the normal sediment transfer development, as already known in
literature (Quinn, 2006). The internal structures of the wreck are
clearly visible on DEM. The presence of the shipwreck is high-
lighted by all the geophysical equipments used, but in the time gap
between different geophysical surveys (JuneeNovember 2006), the
wreck has been subjected to phases of partial and/or almost
complete, burial by sand (Table 1).
Surf zone dynamic studies demonstrate that the presence of
long-shore and rip currents, their reciprocal reports and their
mutual balancing (due to the prevailing sea, the interaction
between waves, refraction phenomenon and their construction/
disruption mutual reports, tides, etc.) may lead to the emplace-
ment of baretrough pairs similar to what happens in our case.
Lateral bar continuity can be interrupted by the presence of
sectors in which erosional necks, generally roughly orthogonal to
the coastline are emplaced (typically, the strongest part of a rip
current is directed from the beach line to the sandy bar opening).
It is interesting to note that the seaoor shapes (ripples) associ-
ated to a NeS movement of the current was present at the
moment of the survey (Fig. 10D). The emplacement of
a submerged coastal engineering structure, which was under
construction, inuenced the sediment pathway. An increase of the
rip current in correspondence of the cut made on the
submerged breakwater, left to preserve the ship, may be a result
of such activity. One year later, the pivoting door of the vessel,
which was not visible at the moment of the survey on DEM, was
almost completely emerged.

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8 S. Passaro / Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1e10

Fig. 8. Comparison among proles extracted from DEM (A), marine resistivity slices at 3 m (B), 4 m (C) and 5 m (D), and from the analytic signal (E). The bold line in A, B, C, D and E
maps is the prole location. Color scale 1 is relative to A, 2 to B, C and D, 3 to E. Extracted proles are overlaid in the F frame (SN direction). Two common anomalies, marked as AN1
and AN2, are revealed. See text for details.

Fig. 9. Correlation between the inverted prole L8_N and the corresponding bathymetric prole extracted from DEM. Positioning of the prole is reported in B.

Please cite this article in press as: Passaro, S., Marine electrical resistivity tomography for shipwreck detection in very shallow water: a..., J.
Archaeol. Sci. (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.004
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S. Passaro / Journal of Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1e10
Fig. 10. A) An example of typical patterns of long-shore and rip currents. B) Typical baretrough bathymetric prole. C) Zone of the emplacement of the coastal defense submerged
structure, actually under construction, and inferred patterns of the old system of rip currents. Actually, the northernmost rip current (enclosed in the rectangle in C and highlighted
in D) may be faster, due to the emersion of the pivoting door of the shipwreck (see also Fig. 7).
6. Conclusions
The marine electrical resistivity measurements represent a valid
alternative to seismiceacoustic prospecting for the detection of
archaeological targets in very shallow water, particularly in marine
sectors with sand at the seabed. This method can be used to outline
conductive and resistive bodies, like metallic objects and wood,
respectively. In this study, we were able to detect and provide
morphological information of a military vessel. The use of
combined geophysical techniques ensures an accurate assessment
of the anomalies of the survey area and helps to reduce the ambi-
guities inherent in each method. We found a remarkable consis-
tency between the anomalies emerged from the different datasets.
The DEM obtained from bathymetry claried the role of the ship-
wreck in the along-shore sediment transfer rate alteration, while
the inverted magnetic data well circumscribed the shipwreck area.
A close correlation between the anomalies detected by the used
methods (magnetic, marine resistivity and bathymetry) has been
found only in the sector where the shipwreck is present. Marine
resistivity applications are not yet commonly used in geophysical
marine exploration, however the initial results of our surveys are
promising to promote such a method as a valuable tool for the
detection of archaeological targets in very shallow waters. The
method can be also used for sedimentological purposes.
Acknowledgements
The author is especially grateful to Francesca Budillon (IAMC-
CNR), F. Cammarano (UC Berkeley), C. Iorio (ULB) and C. Leggieri
(Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici e Culturali di Salerno,
Benevento, Avellino e Caserta) for the precious discussion and
suggestions, and to J. Boyce and another anonymous reviewer that
greatly helped to improve early drafts of this paper.
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