Our Education Programme is recognised around the world and many courses have been run outside of the UK by our trusted training partners in North America, South America, Asia, Australasia and Europe. Meet the team of International Tutors teaching NAS courses around the world.

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Canada

Parks Canada Agency

The Underwater Archaeology Team (UAT) is Canada’s designated Federal Authority on underwater archaeology providing specialized services and advice in managing and protecting Canada’s submerged cultural resources to Parks Canada, other government departments and stakeholders nationwide. These services range from conducting inventories, site-specific surveys and excavations, research and evaluations, management plans and the preparation of heritage presentation materials. Over it’s more than fifty-year history the UAT has become an international leader recognized by its peers around the world for the quality of its fieldwork, research and publications. There are currently eleven UAT staff members: seven underwater archaeologists, two underwater archaeology technicians, a marine engineer and an archaeological illustrator. Find them on Twitter and Facebook.    

NAS tutor team below: Marc-André Bernier, Brandy Lockhart, Thierry Boyer, Jonathan Moore, Ryan Harris and NAS Senior Tutor and contact Charles Dagneau - [email protected] 

 

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Croatia

Since 2012, the International Centre for Underwater Archaeology in Zadar (ICUA) is recognised as an NAS International Training Partner for organising NAS training courses in the Republic of Croatia. ICUA is registered as a state institution and established as UNESCO category II centre. The main goals of ICUA are to organise underwater training courses for national and international experts, develop international cooperation in regards to scientific research of underwater archaeological sites, organise international conferences, seminars and workshops and improve scientific and expert research of underwater archaeological sites.

Since 2012. Mladen Pešić as Senior Tutor and Luka Bekić as Tutor, conducted NAS courses every year, and since 2017. Roko Surić was accepted as second Tutor and involved in training courses. ICUA provides students NAS Introduction, Part I and several modules of NAS Part III courses, but also provides students possibilities to be a part of underwater survey and excavation projects in order to gain experience for the NAS Part II report. All information regarding courses and ICUA in general are provided on their web page www.icua.hr

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Hong Kong

Bill Jeffery is Senior Tutor with the Hong Kong Underwater Heritage Group (HKUHG). His background in maritime archaeology is from Australia commencing in the late 1970s. After studying with the Western Australian Museum and coordinating a maritime heritage program for a state government agency, Heritage South Australia for 20 years, Bill moved to Chuuk (Truk) Lagoon and worked as a maritime archaeologist for the Federated States of Micronesia National Historic Preservation Office, in addition to implementing activities in Yap and Pohnpei. He completed his PhD on the Chuuk Lagoon World War II shipwrecks with James Cook University. 

In 2002, he commenced consulting in maritime archaeology with ERM Hong Kong, where he still conducts marine archaeology investigations required under Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance. He began conducting NAS courses in Hong Kong in 2008 and following a 2009 course, was one of the founding members of the HKUHG, who compiled a database of underwater cultural heritage in Hong Kong.

The group has conducted a number of projects under licence from the Antiquities and Monuments Office and with funding from the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust. One of the last projects was the discovery and subsequent survey and recovery of a 1000-year old anchor stock, which has gone on display at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum (HKMM) in an ‘East meets West’ exhibition. Bill maintains a voluntary Research Associate position with HKMM and provides occasional lectures to the Anthropology Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in the hope a young Hong Kong resident will become Hong Kong’s first local maritime archaeologist. After a number of years working and living in Hong Kong, in which over 60 Hong Kong divers in five NAS courses (out of an estimated 70,000 scuba divers in Hong Kong) have developed their maritime archaeology skills, Bill moved to Guam in 2015 to take up a position as Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Guam. 

NAS courses on average are conducted annually in Hong Kong.

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Italy

Reitia ACD is a not-for-profit, independent organisation operating in the field of underwater archaeology since 2000.  Their mission is to survey, record and study ancient cultures as well as to train professional and amateur divers, and students in underwater archaeology as well.

From 2000 to 2011 Reitia held underwater survey courses in different locations and sites throughout Italy, in accordance and under the supervision of CMAS. As a peculiar field of specialisation of Reitia, it’s worth to mention rivers and lakes underwater surveys.

In 2012, Reitia joined NAS, by so becoming International Training partner in Italy. Duilio Della Libera is the Senior Tutor, while Damairo Brugnera and Enrico Ambrogi are Tutors. The Reitia Team – six experienced divers - has been carrying out NAS courses usually twice a year from 2012 on at different levels (NAS Introduction, Part I, Part II and some modules of NAS Part III courses). Attendees are students, professionals, educational institutions as well as archaeology enthusiasts interested in knowing more about the matter and possibly improving their diving skills.

News concerning courses can be found at their website and Facebook page.

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Japan

Japan has a comprehensive heritage management system and some 468,000 land sites having been registered, but less than 400 sites underwater are in a database. NAS programme in Japan was first introduced in 2018 in cooperation with Tokai University with an aim of awareness-rising on the protection of underwater cultural heritage among stakeholders, including heritage agencies and the public. Tokai University is a higher education institute leading the marine archaeology research and education programme – Dr. Jun Kimura is the NAS Senior Tutor at Tokai University.

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Mexico – ArqSubMx

Underwater archaeological explorations in México have resulted in amazing discoveries. Some of these discoveries speak about the first settlers in America who lived in the México at the end of the Pleistocene, more than 13,000 years ago, and who share the territory with Megafauna from the Ice Age. Some of this human and paleontological evidence has been found in the submerged caves and cenotes of the Peninsula of Yucatan. Also, pre-Hispanic artefacts and human skeletons, evoking the rites and ceremonies that the Mayans carried out in the cenotes in veneration of the gods of water, fertility and the underworld. As well, archaeological evidence of nautical artefacts and shipwrecks found submerged in the Mexican littorals evokes 500 years of maritime navigation in the area, from the discovery and exploration of the New World, up to the great steam freighters and the modern internal combustion vessels.

Many of these discoveries found in the caves/cenotes and in the ocean have been studied under research archaeological projects developed by NAS Senior tutor Octavio del Río and Luis Alberto Martos under the endorsement of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Since 2014, They have been performing NAS courses in México, that includes basic to advanced technical diving training in the ocean, caves and cenotes, applying the required techniques and methodologies for the understanding and documentation of the cultural heritage that lies in these amazing and unique environments.

ArqSubMx has presence in the whole country: Veracruz and Golf of Mexico, Mexican Caribbean, Yucatan Peninsula, and the Pacific Ocean. 

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Mexico – Madrephora Natura y Cultura AC

Laura Carrillo Márquez (Senior Tutor). Researcher since 1996 at the Vice-Directorate of Underwater Archaeology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), graduated from Archaeology in the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), with two specialty courses in Underwater Archaeology (ENAH-Directorate of Archaeological Studies and UNESCO/ARQUA), and in Management Strategies for Heritage Sites (National School of Conservation, Restoration and Museography). Her interests are focused in underwater cultural resources management, enriched by the assistance to several courses on Strategic Planning and Management of Cultural Heritage and the participation in various terrestrial and underwater archaeology projects in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Responsible for INAH´s maritime archaeology projects in the states of Veracruz and Chinchorro Bank, Quintana Roo, who’s recently has been recognized by UNESCO´s Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage as an example of Best Practices.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

 

Vera Moya Sordo. Graduated in Archaeology in the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), she started working as a researcher at the Vice-Directorate of Underwater Archaeology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), in a project that was searching for the rests of the flagship of New Spain’s Fleet, wrecked in 1631, somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. Throughout ten years in this profession, her interests have specialized towards the recording and study of shipwrecks and the process of formation of these submerged contexts. In order to expand her horizon as a researcher and motivated by personal interest in the human experience of the sea and its navigation, she decided to study a Master’s degree and later a PhD in History (National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM) related to other naval topics. She is an Alexander von Humbold Scholar and member of the international research group Red Imperial Contractor State Group (CSG) of Navarra University which seeks to study the mobilization of military resources and the construction of Spain’s imperial monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Email: [email protected]

  

Rafal Reichert - MA in archaeology (University of Warsaw) and PhD in history (National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM). Specialist in colonial and economic history of the Greater Caribbean, maritime history and maritime archaeology. Nowadays he is developing the project on wood supplies from Baltic and the New Spain viceroyalty for the Spanish navy in the 18th century. Currently is a researcher at the Center for Higher Studies of Mexico and Central America (CESMECA) of the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas in Mexico.

Email: [email protected] 

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USA

David Thompson - MAs in Historic Archaeology and Archaeology and Heritage from the University of Leicester, and a Graduate Certificate in Oceanic Education from the University of Virginia.  He has been diving since 1972 and is a PADI MSDT and SSI Master Instructor.  David was the staff archaeologist for Nautilus Marine Group for ten years and is now co-owner of Portunes International, an educational development company that provides continuing education training courses in all aspects of underwater archaeology to non-profit and avocational archaeological groups.  David is the Senior NAS tutor for the Underwater Archaeology Society of Chicago and the Maritime Heritage Chapter of the Archaeology Society of Virginia.   

USA

Victor Mastone has over 40 years of experience in researching and managing terrestrial and submerged prehistoric, historic, industrial and maritime cultural resources.  He serves as a Senior Tutor for the NAS certificate program for the New England region administered through Bridgewater State University. Since 2015, he has been a Visiting Instructor on the Seafaring Education and Maritime Archaeological Heritage Program and at Salem State University where he co-teaches a maritime archaeology field school for undergraduate credit and NAS level 1 certification.

Vic is the Director and Chief Archaeologist of the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources (BUAR).  Joining the BUAR in 1987 as its first staff archaeologist, he is chief steward of all submerged cultural resources located within the coastal and inland waters of Massachusetts, including over 3,500 shipwrecks.  He also served as Assistant Secretary for Administration and Finance for Massachusetts' Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (concurrent with above from 2000-2004). He received his B.A. in History and Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston and his M.A. in Anthropology and M.B.A. in Arts Administration from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

USA

Calvin Mires, Ph.D, is a Senior Tutor for NAS in New England region administered through Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts, where he teaches maritime archaeology and archaeology and he has been the lead NAS Tutor on the Seafaring Education and Maritime Archaeological Heritage Program.  His experience includes serving as staff archaeologist at the Program in Maritime Studies at East Carolina University for almost ten years and a year as Director of Bridge Program at The PAST Foundation helping students make connections between anthropology, archaeology, history, and science and technology.  In his 20-year career, he has worked on projects around the world as student and instructor. He has enjoyed equally learning from amazing colleagues and sharing his experiences with students at various levels and stops on their own journeys. He is most proud of those who catch the passion and the joy of the discipline and have contributed in their own ways to the field. His research interests include public outreach and education, understanding people’s attitudes and values toward maritime cultural resources, and broadening participation and inclusivity in the field.