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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. 21.3% 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%
5.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
21.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+22%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research?

By volume, the United States and France publish the most (524 and 461 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 524 works
  2. 2 France 461 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 402 works
  4. 4 Italy 328 works
  5. 5 China 212 works
  6. 6 Spain 176 works
  7. 7 Greece 118 works
  8. 8 Türkiye 116 works
  9. 9 Croatia 114 works
  10. 10 Australia 98 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: 20.6%France: 18.1%United Kingdom: 15.8%Italy: 12.9%6 others listed: 32.7%21%largest
United States524 · 20.6%France461 · 18.1%United Kingdom402 · 15.8%Italy328 · 12.9%6 others listed834 · 32.7%

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

Which institutions lead Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research?

By volume in 2022–2025, University of Cambridge publishes the most Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research, followed by Department of Archaeology and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Who are the leading researchers in Maritime and Coastal Archaeology?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Maritime and Coastal Archaeology include Hai Cheng and J. W. Head.

  1. 1 Hai Cheng China 2.9k citations
  2. 2 J. W. Head United States 2.3k citations

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

Where is Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research done?

The largest centres of Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research in 2022–2025 are Paris (France), Cambridge (United Kingdom), London (United Kingdom) and Rome (Italy). 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, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Paris France 112 works
  2. 2 Cambridge United Kingdom 77 works
  3. 3 London United Kingdom 69 works
  4. 4 Rome Italy 60 works
  5. 5 Athens Greece 60 works
  6. 6 Beijing China 56 works
  7. 7 Colombo Sri Lanka 51 works
  8. 8 Madrid Spain 42 works
  9. 9 Zagreb Croatia 42 works
  10. 10 Zadar Croatia 39 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ZadarHR · 39.2 works158×
  2. Aix-en-ProvenceFR · 21.1 works60×
  3. ColomboLK · 51.4 works26×
  4. VeniceIT · 25.4 works20×
← less than its size predictsmore →

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, Universidad de Cádiz, University of Haifa and Ca' Foscari University of Venice score highest, combining 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%60%mean 28.78%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Universidad de Cádiz: 14, 44.0%University of Haifa: 20, 39.6%Ca' Foscari University of Venice: 13, 24.2%University of Patras: 12, 28.3%University of Zadar: 28, 27.4%University of Malta: 18, 10.5%University of Cambridge: 77, 4.5%Flinders University: 9, 32.9%National and Kapodistrian University of Athens: 11, 48.1%Aix-Marseille Université: 9, 28.3%Universidad de CádizUniversity of HaifaUniversity of PatrasCa' Foscari Universi…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Universidad de CádizSpain 75.744.0%21.4×14 +200.3%
2 University of HaifaIsrael 66.739.6%22.7×20 +63.2%
3 Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 60.224.2%14.0×13 +319.0%
4 University of PatrasGreece 58.028.3%12.3×12 +119.4%
5 University of ZadarCroatia 56.827.4%154.5×28 +21.4%
6 University of MaltaMalta 56.310.5%35.2×18 +296.0%
7 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 53.84.5%18.2×77 +1.7%
8 Flinders UniversityAustralia 53.332.9%10.1×9 +13.9%
9 National and Kapodistrian University of AthensGreece 53.248.1%5.8×11 +48.4%
10 Aix-Marseille UniversitéFrance 49.628.3%8.0×9 +104.5%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Maritime and Coastal Archaeology research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 22% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Maritime and Coastal Archaeology.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

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

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.