Shipwreck Stories in a Trap Bay. Research and Valorisation in Torre Santa Sabina (Brindisi, Italy)

The underwater archaeological research in the inlet of Torre Santa Sabina – Baia dei Camerini (Municipality of Carovigno, Brindisi, Italy) is the pilot intervention of the Interreg Italia-Croatia Under waterMuse pro ject, which aims to enhance and make accessible the huge underwater cultural heritage of the areas involved through the creation of submerged archaeological parks and the narrative and communicative use of the virtual reality. The Puglia Region – Department of Tourism, Economy of Culture and Valorisation of the Territory, partner of the UnderwaterMuse project, has involved the three regional Universities thanks to an agreement. Their fruitful synergy and the support of the community have allowed the achievement of the objectives of the campaigns 2020– 2021. Thanks to the collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Turin, the entire stretch of coast was mapped with drone flights, in order to reconstruct the coastal landscape in its various phases, starting from the Bronze Age. Targeted interventions was carried out on a Roman Imperial wreck, beached and abandoned at the ancient shore and now submerged due to the relative rise in sea level, and on the remains of on-board equipment of a ship of the Venetian Serenissima, the GALEA MAGNA (1598). Another important focus was the stratigraphy of cargoes from var ious shipwrecks accumulated at the foot of the western cliff.