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Topic · Archeology

Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

Maritime and Coastal Archaeology is a research topic within Archeology. Science Explorer counts 24k research works in it since 1950. 10.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on maritime archaeology in the Mediterranean Sea, exploring sea-level changes, ancient harbours, underwater cultural heritage, shipwrecks, coastal evolution, tidal notches, and geoarchaeology during the Holocene period. The research encompasses a wide range of topics related to the submerged landscapes, human-environment interactions, and historical maritime activities in the Mediterranean region.

  • Mediterranean
  • Maritime Archaeology
  • Sea-Level Change
  • Ancient Harbours
  • Underwater Cultural Heritage
  • Geoarchaeology
  • Shipwrecks
  • Coastal Evolution
  • Tidal Notches
  • Holocene
Research works
24k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-2%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
21% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

Which countries lead Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research?

By volume, the United States and France publish the most (580 and 483 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 580 works
  2. 2 France 483 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 433 works
  4. 4 Italy 376 works
  5. 5 China 238 works
  6. 6 Spain 195 works
  7. 7 Greece 137 works
  8. 8 Türkiye 126 works
  9. 9 India 120 works
  10. 10 Croatia 119 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 20.7%France: 17.2%United Kingdom: 15.4%Italy: 13.4%6 others listed: 33.3%21%largest
United States580 · 20.7%France483 · 17.2%United Kingdom433 · 15.4%Italy376 · 13.4%6 others listed934 · 33.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research, followed by University of Cambridge and Department of Archaeology.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 232 works
  2. 2 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 78 works
  3. 3 Department of ArchaeologySri Lanka 53 works
  4. 4 National Research CouncilItaly 38 works
  5. 5 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 32 works
  6. 6 University of ZadarCroatia 29 works
  7. 7 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasSpain 26 works
  8. 8 University of HaifaIsrael 22 works
  9. 9 University of MaltaMalta 19 works
  10. 10 Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques PréventivesFrance 18 works

Who are the leading researchers in Maritime and Coastal Archaeology?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Maritime and Coastal Archaeology include Josep Peñuelas, Carlos Manuel Duarte and Robert B. Jackson.

  1. 1 Josep Peñuelas Spain 160k citations
  2. 2 Carlos Manuel Duarte Saudi Arabia 152k citations
  3. 3 Robert B. Jackson United States 149k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Maritime and Coastal Archaeology?

The most cited paper in Maritime and Coastal Archaeology is "Sea level and global ice volumes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene" (Kurt Lambeck, Hélène Rouby, Anthony Purcell et al., 2014), with 2,729 citations. Next come "Millennial- and orbital-scale changes in the East Asian monsoon over the past 224,000 years" (2,014) and "The Asian monsoon over the past 640,000 years and ice age terminations" (1,766).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Sea level and global ice volumes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene Kurt Lambeck, Hélène Rouby, Anthony Purcell et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open access 13 Oct 2014 2,729
2 Millennial- and orbital-scale changes in the East Asian monsoon over the past 224,000 years Yongjin Wang, Hai Cheng, Richard Lawrence Edwards et al. · Nature Feb 2008 2,014
3 The Asian monsoon over the past 640,000 years and ice age terminations Hai Cheng, Richard Lawrence Edwards, Ashish Sinha et al. · Nature 29 Jun 2016 1,766
4 Sea-level fluctuations during the last glacial cycle Mark Edward Siddall, Eelco J. Rohling, Ahuva Almogi‐Labin et al. · Nature Open access 18 Jun 2003 1,662
5 Recent and Planned Developments of the Program OxCal Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Sharen Lee · Radiocarbon 2013 1,485
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research done?

The largest centres of Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research in 2022-now are Paris (France), Cambridge (United Kingdom), London (United Kingdom) and Athens (Greece). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Zadar, Aix-en-Provence and Colombo.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 ParisFrance 120 works
  2. 2 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 79 works
  3. 3 LondonUnited Kingdom 76 works
  4. 4 AthensGreece 70 works
  5. 5 RomeItaly 68 works
  6. 6 BeijingChina 63 works
  7. 7 ColomboSri Lanka 58 works
  8. 8 MadridSpain 47 works
  9. 9 ZagrebCroatia 43 works
  10. 10 MoscowRussia 41 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ZadarHR · 40.0 works150×
  2. Aix-en-ProvenceFR · 21.9 works60×
  3. ColomboLK · 58.0 works26×
  4. VeniceIT · 27.6 works20×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Maritime and Coastal Archaeology than the world average.

See Maritime and Coastal Archaeology on the map

Where is the best place to study Maritime and Coastal Archaeology?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Cambridge, Universidad de Cádiz and University of Bari Aldo Moro score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 18.16%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Universidad de CádizUniversity of Bari A…University of PatrasUniversity of Cambri…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 67.32.5%17.1×78 +294.5%
2Universidad de CádizSpain 62.924.5%20.4×15 +38.2%
3University of Bari Aldo MoroItaly 60.620.7%8.8×11 +50.1%
4University of PatrasGreece 60.319.4%12.1×12 +9.8%
5National and Kapodistrian University of AthensGreece 58.531.6%6.8×13 -54.2%
6University of PisaItaly 56.221.2%6.1×11 +59.6%
7University of HaifaIsrael 54.211.2%25.8×22 +2.0%
8University of CalabriaItaly 54.216.8%11.6×8 +24.3%
9University of Naples Federico IIItaly 51.215.3%3.9×11 +31.9%
10University of BolognaItaly 47.418.4%4.5×14 -14.4%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Maritime and Coastal Archaeology, country by country

Is Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 2% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Maritime and Coastal Archaeology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.020% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Maritime and Coastal Archaeology0.020% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Maritime and Coastal Archaeology over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Maritime and Coastal Archaeology9.6% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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