This year’s Claude Duthuit Archaeology Grant was awarded to Dave Ruff, a fourth-year Ph.D. student at Texas A&M, to support excavation of a Roman ship in the Bay of Kastela, Croatia. Dave was co-director of the excavation with Dr. Irena Radic-Rossi of the University of Zadar, Croatia. Irena is also an adjunct professor at Texas A&M.
Dave will be working on the ship’s reconstruction for his dissertation; the excavation results will be presented in detail at the annual INA board meeting in Vermont in September, delivered at the International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology in Gdansk Poland in October, and published in a future issue of the INA Quarterly.
Above: Overview of the site, looking from south to north. The ship is 50 meters from land; the excavation team stayed in a house on the coast, diving from land and using water dredges powered from a nearby pier. (photo: E. Šilić).
Below: On the landing of the house where the team stayed. From left to right: Nick Budsberg (Texas A&M), Luka Golubovic, Jelena Glamac, Sasa Koren, Matko Cvrljak, Dr. Irena Radic-Rossi, Ervin Silic (drone pilot), Sofia Blanchard, Petra Masce, Dave Ruff (Texas A&M), Gita the dog, Arianna DiMucci (Texas A&M), Derik Durbin, Sebastian Govorcin. (photo: E. Šilić)
