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One of the weaknesses of human society lies in its extreme difficulty in understanding time, anticipating it, and being prepared for events, many of which we ourselves provoke. Yet, over millennia, our species has developed various activities that, if taken more seriously, could help us understand many aspects of existence, both collectively and individually. Some of these have even become professions, which are the focus of this section. This time, we turn to those who excavate the sea to contribute to the narrative of our existence: naval archaeology.

L’intervista

Network Museum – Who is Lucia Foderà?

Lucia Foderà – She is a young researcher and archaeologist, attentive to societal changes and needs. I have always had a good memory, mainly because I have constantly studied new and diverse subjects throughout my life. My motto is: “One must always continue learning to avoid stagnation.”
I am someone who loves teamwork, and to ensure its effectiveness, I always strive to establish a simple yet efficient system that prevents imbalances. Since 2016, I have passionately and persistently devoted myself to Naval Archaeology, a discipline that is still too often overshadowed by traditional archaeology. Neither universities nor the various ministries responsible for cultural heritage protection have ever truly recognized this field’s dignity and autonomy, as acknowledged by many other countries.
I firmly believe in legality and in the almost visceral determination to safeguard our Cultural Heritage, especially during such a delicate historical period, where wars, killings, and violence prevail unchecked. My daily source of inspiration is the archaeologist and Italian Army officer, Fabio Maniscalco, a strong, courageous, and resolute defender of cultural heritage in war zones. For him, the work of an archaeologist was a mission to preserve universal beauty, even at the cost of his own life. Tragically, he passed away at the age of 43 in 2008, due to exposure to depleted uranium.
At 24 years old, when I received the scholarship named in his honor, from the hands of his widow, Mariarosaria Ruggiero, in collaboration with the International Archeomafie Center, I realized that my academic path had to serve a single purpose: the protection of plundered shipwrecks in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Since 2021, I have been carrying forward this project in collaboration with the Italian Navy.
As the future President of Archeoclub d’Italia for its new Rome headquarters, I wish to dedicate this branch in memory of this great man, who has been forgotten by society and professionals in the field.

Network Museum – What is culture and what is it for?

Lucia Foderà – Culture is freedom, civilization, and civilizing force. UNESCO defines it as the sum of the unique spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional aspects that distinguish a society. It defines the way we interact with others.
It is one of the few feminine nouns to which no temporal limit can be applied, as it is eternal. Culture serves to create bridges, connections, dialogues, and relationships among peoples.
A culture in 2025 that is more open, dynamic, democratic, an inexhaustible source of values and knowledge. Museums are fundamental as tools and spaces for culture, increasingly at the service of the community.

Network Museum – What is a museum and what is it for?

Lucia Foderà – The museum is conceived as a cradle of memories from the past, a collector of fragments of a lost era, an inexhaustible catalog of knowledge about ancient civilizations, but also as a cultural expression of the territory and an economic opportunity for the present and future. It is precisely this tripartition, past, present, and future, that distinguishes the museum as a living, engaged, and engaging entity within our society. It is essential to establish a connection between the museum, understood as cultural heritage, and the outside world to create synergies between the exhibited artifacts and the surrounding social and economic context.
Today, museums must become part of a broader, more complex system, adapting to a society in constant transformation, characterized by its potential and fragility, and often marked by fragmented communities. ICOM, in its latest definition of “museum” (2022), introduces two fundamental words: “participation” and “community,” emphasizing the ethical role the museum is called to assume in relation to society, not merely as a place of exhibition but also as a means of actively contributing to its development.
A museum should be understood as a perceptual space, a reality fully immersed in its time, a place dedicated not only to preserving objects related to material culture but above all to safeguarding memories, fragments of the past. It must be able to communicate both what is present and what is absent, what has been lost.
It is crucial to give voice to faint traces, ensuring that both the presence and absence of artifacts speak, not only to archaeologists, art historians, and specialists but to the broader public. Museums must keep pace with the times and understand the needs of an increasingly diverse audience, one that navigates exhibitive spaces within an evolving constitutional framework.

Network Museum – What is archaeology, and specifically naval archaeology? What is it for? How does it interact with other fields of knowledge?

Lucia Foderà – Archaeology is a science that reconstructs the past, not solely through books but directly in the field, within everyday reality. The stratigraphic archaeologist is like a farmer of history.
History consists of countless fragments from the past; I like to call them, somewhat improperly, “pieces of memory.” The archaeologist’s task is precisely to reassemble those fragments, customs, traditions, architecture, and ways of life. However, not everything is linked to material aspects. Often, archaeologists must reconstruct the thoughts, emotions, and passions of people from the past.
Naval archaeology aims to do the same. Underwater excavation is a true stratigraphic excavation, equivalent to terrestrial archaeology. Naval archaeologists study ancient shipwrecks, their architecture, their armament, and their cargo to reconstruct ancient trade networks and civilizations.
In this field, we are not solely concerned with material culture, we must also reconstruct, above all, life on board. Naval archaeology interacts with traditional archaeology, paleobotany, anthropology, and numerous other disciplines.
However, underwater archaeology, as a specialized discipline, risks becoming dangerously self-referential and isolated. Many times, I hear people say that archaeology is useless, only concerned with aspects of a distant past, but it is crucial to teach new generations that without a deep understanding of the past, we cannot build the future.

Network Museum – What does it mean to be a naval archaeologist?

Lucia Foderà – It means unconditionally loving the sea, seen as a crossroads of multiple civilizations. It means trusting it, meticulously reconstructing shipwrecks and port infrastructures, combining archaeological expertise with specific diving techniques.
Whenever I talk about naval archaeology, I cannot help but remember my professor, my mentor, the person to whom I owe all my knowledge: Sebastiano Tusa, a great naval archaeologist, who tragically passed away in 2019 due to a terrible plane crash.
There is a phrase of his that I always carry in my heart, one that best encapsulates the profession of a naval archaeologist and its mission within the cultural landscape: “It is not important for history books to record my name. What matters is successfully completing great scientific endeavors. My life has been dedicated to the relationship with the Mediterranean and all the civilizations that have flourished along its shores. And, when my work is done, I will know what to do.”

Network Museum – How does one become a naval archaeologist?

Lucia Foderà – One must obtain a degree in archaeology and then acquire a diving certification from a specialized school. Obtaining multiple certifications and specialty courses (particularly “deep” and “wreck” diving) allows for a deeper understanding of the subject and greater familiarity with the natural environment (the sea).
Naval archaeologists must possess aquatic skills, a sense of orientation, teamwork abilities, underwater communication skills, the ability to work under stress, dexterity, and curiosity. The sea should be accessible to everyone, but it must be approached with absolute respect, awareness, and technical preparation.
Unfortunately, few universities in Italy currently offer a specific degree program in naval archaeology, and there is no center of excellence like France’s DRASSM in Marseille (Department of Subaquatic and Underwater Archaeological Research).

Network Museum – What job opportunities exist for those who wish to pursue this specialization?

Lucia Foderà – A naval or underwater archaeologist finds employment opportunities primarily in the public sector (Superintendencies, Ministry of Cultural Heritage) and the private sector (specialized companies). The professional roles involved include archaeologists, researchers, technicians, and underwater operators.

Network Museum – What advice would you give to young people who wish to pursue this profession?

Lucia Foderà – Never settle. Fight for your ideas, even when society deems them crazy. Stay hungry for knowledge, be passionate about your work, and be courageous.
Italy is a country that forces us to change our plans every day, to never settle, to be resilient and patient. We must shake off the academic rigidity that has suffocated the country for too many years and trust in innovation, research, young people, and a system that truly keeps pace with the times.
Archaeology must be fully recognized as a profession, not just a hobby reserved for the wealthiest classes. One can, and should, make a living from archaeology.
In 2025, it is unthinkable that the profession of archaeologist in Italy is still not regulated by a professional order or a specific register. Currently, there are only lists managed by the Ministry, dividing archaeologists into three categories based on their level of expertise and academic background.
Much remains to be done, much remains to be done for the traditional archaeologist, and even more for the “mythical” figure of the naval archaeologist.

Network Museum – What is the relationship between archaeology, archaeologists, and museums?

Lucia Foderà – A relationship of deep synergy: one depends on the other. The museum needs the archaeologist for the study, inventory, and cataloging of artifacts, while the archaeologist needs the museum to safeguard these pieces, not merely as objects but as memories, fragments of the past. Archaeology is the discipline that connects the archaeologist to the museum.
In 2025, the museum must be seen as a place of unity for citizens, a cultural and social landmark. Through this perspective, archaeology becomes a discipline in service of the community, an integral part of it. The relationship is no longer one-sided between the archaeologist, as a specialist, and the museum, but between the museum and the community.
To extend the concept of accessibility and inclusion to that of participation, and to recognize the museum as a living element of its territory, one of the first steps is to contextualize it within its community. This means bringing the museum outside its walls and connecting it to the external reality, its cultural, historical, economic, associative, and tourism components, as well as communication systems and gathering places.
In this way, through a targeted project, the museum actively interacts with its surrounding fabric, allowing the community to recognize it as a fundamental element of its identity.

Network Museum – What are the most critical aspects of naval archaeology? And what are the positive ones?

Lucia Foderà – The most critical aspects of naval archaeology are also its strengths, as they are inherently intertwined: “the uniqueness and fragility of artifacts.” This requires the use of underwater excavation techniques, which are significantly more expensive than traditional terrestrial excavations, the employment of highly specialized personnel, and the specific treatment and preservation of materials in a marine environment (let’s not forget that these artifacts have been preserved underwater for thousands of years, making them extremely delicate).
The management of submerged cultural heritage remains highly complex without adequate funding from various research institutions..

Network Museum – How do you evaluate the relationship between information, the cultural dissemination system, and the educational-school system from the perspective of archaeology? What happens abroad?

Lucia Foderà – As an inspector of national and international naval museums, a role I held in 2024, I can compare what happens in Italy’s cultural institutions with what occurs abroad. Italy is the country with the richest cultural heritage in the world, yet it does not guarantee its accessibility. We must invest in culture, as other countries do, where the educational system is completely innovative, focused on the use of new technologies to enhance knowledge.
Why do we always view foreign models as something perfect but unattainable within our own reality? Why does the Vasa Museum in Stockholm have an entire area dedicated to public communication within its exhibition spaces? Why are Italy’s cultural institutions still embedded in an academic rigidity that leads nowhere?
The issue is not just the crisis, as archaeologist and art historian Salvatore Settis pointed out some years ago, we need to change the way we approach culture, transmit culture, and enhance culture.
There is a great difference in educational methods and, so to speak, visitor engagement between Italian and foreign museums. At the Vasa Museum, children have entirely dedicated spaces, where they can play, draw, and experiment with new things. In Italy, this rarely happens, except for the Galata Museum in Genoa and the Museum of Ancient Ships in Pisa, which offer classrooms entirely dedicated to education.
All of this should make us deeply reflect. We must abandon the static nature, inaccessibility, and lack of communication that characterize Italy’s cultural institutions. We need to open them to the community, to its needs, and create museum structures and exhibitions “in fieri”—constantly evolving, just as time flows inevitably through our lives every day.

Network Museum – How does archaeology and archaeological activity interact with other sectors of society, the economy, and development, such as urban planning, landscape planning, tourism, urban infrastructure, transportation, or industrial structures? What happens abroad?

Lucia Foderà – Archaeology is crucial for the responsible management of territory. Preventive archaeology can be considered a fully modern discipline, “in fieri.” Archaeology, urban planning, and landscape planning are pieces of a single mosaic, as seen abroad, whereas in Italy, an unjustified distinction is still made between them.
It is always necessary to protect and enhance the cultural background of a given location where future operations are planned. Working in synergy with multiple professionals in the field is essential: on a construction site, teamwork is key, fostering deep dialogue among various specialists, ensuring that nothing is overlooked.
Thus, we often see engineers conversing with architects, who in turn engage with planners, who collaborate with archaeologists, who interact with agronomists, all critical links in a single assembly chain.
A great asset in the third millennium is technology, which enables all involved professionals to work with more complete and detailed data. The use of artificial intelligence, georadar, and GIS tools is crucial in this sector for more informed territorial management.

Network Museum – What if we destroyed everything that comes from the past and replaced it with casinos, shopping malls, football stadiums, and similar structures? What could happen? So, what is the purpose of “doing archaeology”?

Lucia Foderà – If our past were destroyed, if “insignificant ruins” were replaced by shopping malls and football stadiums, our cultural identity would be erased forever, and we would become increasingly victims of extreme globalization. We must safeguard memory to build the future.
Often, the figure of the archaeologist is detached from their own time and era, seen as an obstacle to progress, innovation, and modernity. In reality, archaeologists embrace progress with confidence, archaeology increasingly relies on new technologies to better understand artifacts, structures, and traces of the past.
However, we must not confuse progress with destruction. Unfortunately, political institutions do little to stop the indiscriminate usurpation and degradation of our cultural heritage.
Salvatore Settis, a distinguished archaeologist, once remarked that forgetting culture and heritage is a long-standing tradition in Italian politics, across all parties and ideologies.
From the recently withdrawn DL Culture amendment, which proposed making the opinion of the Superintendencies non-binding, to the infamous comment whispered by a former Prime Minister to a Minister of Culture during the G20 on Culture, “Do not listen too much to the experts (archaeologists), otherwise nothing gets done”, these examples reveal just how fragile our cultural identity remains.

Network Museum – How is archaeology experiencing technological progress?

Lucia Foderà – The relationship between archaeology and technological progress is becoming increasingly close, necessary, and instrumental. Archaeology relies on the tools provided by new technologies to expand its “range” of knowledge about the past. Numerous advancements and remarkable projects have been developed to meet these specific needs.
Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, drones, and specialized software have significantly enhanced the preservation and promotion of our cultural heritage.
One example is the “Katatexilux” project, which focuses on digital reconstructions and models, including the virtual reconstruction of Nero’s Domus Aurea.
I firmly believe in the synergy between archaeology and technology, which is why I decided to found, alongside a team of skilled professionals in cultural heritage, the new multimedia and innovative headquarters of ArcheoClub d’Italia in Rome.
This new space is designed to be modern, inclusive, and accessible to a broad audience, breaking away from academic rigidity and compartmentalized thinking.
It will also be Italy’s first headquarters primarily dedicated to naval archaeology, promoting a freer and more inclusive approach to culture.

Network Museum – How do you envision archaeology “in” and “of” the future?

Lucia Foderà – I envision a research approach where the fundamental, distinctive, and traditional elements of archaeology will be replaced. First and foremost, archaeological excavation will no longer be an indispensable research tool. Instead, remote sensing and georadar will allow us to see what lies beneath the ground. Laser scanning and LiDAR will become increasingly important.
All of this will enable the collection of more reliable data, saving time, human resources, and money. Everything will change—the role and methodological approach of the archaeologist will evolve, with fieldwork gradually giving way to laboratory-based material analysis.
However, it is crucial to remember one fundamental truth: new technological tools can never replace the skills, expertise, and cultural knowledge of the professional.

Network Museum – Now, the question related to this year’s theme: How would you define a smart museum?

Lucia Foderà – A smart museum is one that can interpret and develop the paradigms of modernity in the era of digital transformation. Museums of the future must be accessible, digital, narrated, sustainable, and lived. Ensuring accessibility to the museum, in all its forms, is considered an unquestionable indicator of social justice and the well-being owed to citizens. To extend the concept of accessibility and inclusion to that of participation—and to recognize the museum as a living element of its territory—one of the first steps is to contextualize it within its community. That means bringing the museum outside of itself and connecting it to the external reality: its cultural, historical, productive, associative, and touristic components, its communication systems, and its gathering places. This is where new roles emerge: the digital strategy manager and the museum communicator. We must keep pace with the times and understand the needs of the public—a public that is increasingly diverse, with varying expectations, navigating exhibition spaces within a constitutional framework that is “in fieri.” A museum that, as G. H. Rivière once said, “is constantly changing.”
During my experience as a museum inspector, I often asked myself: Are contemporary naval museums truly inclusive? Can their cultural experience be enjoyed by everyone? I’m not just referring to their internal dimension—the removal of cognitive barriers or the design of accessible and usable exhibits—but also to their external dimension. Museums today must become part of a broader, more complex whole: a society in constant transformation, marked by both potential and fragility, often characterized by fragmented communities.
In its latest definition of “museum” (2022), ICOM introduced two fundamental words: “participation” and “community,” thus emphasizing the ethical role that museums are called to assume in relation to society—making the enjoyment of their collections not only the goal of their mission, but also the means through which they contribute to societal development.
One of the weaknesses of the Italian cultural system is its outdated infrastructure. From the scarcity of Braille captions (only one-fifth of museums offer tactile paths or panels for the visually impaired) to closures due to neglect, there are many ways in which access to museums and cultural sites is not guaranteed. Historic museum buildings should enhance the value of their collections—not become a barrier.
It is unacceptable that a major museum like the one in Nemi faces serious structural issues, with exhibits frozen in 1988, captions made of faded and torn sheets placed randomly, staff unwilling to engage with the public, and a lack of essential services such as gift/bookshops or refreshment areas. Green spaces are neglected, everything is left to decay, and the museum itself has become a wreck.
We must break free from our self-referential system and look abroad, engaging with colleagues from other maritime museums to explore new forms of practice.
Some elements, especially in Northern Europe, are particularly relevant. First and foremost, the relationship with real ships. Maritime museums are built near water. Ships enter directly into the museum, or the museum is built around the ship (like the Vasa at the Vasamuseet in Stockholm). In Italy, exhibition spaces are often adapted; rarely is a structure built specifically for a museum collection. This limits the ability to create expansive, flexible scenographies that would be impossible within historic buildings.
Why do we always view foreign models as perfect but unrepeatable in our own reality? Why does the Vasa Museum in Stockholm have a dedicated area for public communication within its galleries? Why are Italian cultural institutions still entrenched in academic rigidity that leads nowhere?
We must change the way we approach culture. There is a significant difference in educational methods and, so to speak, in the ability to attract visitors between Italian and foreign museums. At the Vasa Museum, children have entire spaces dedicated to them—places to play, draw, and experiment. In Italy, this almost never happens, except at the Galata Museum in Genoa or the Museum of Ancient Ships in Pisa, which offer classrooms entirely dedicated to education.

All of this should deeply make us reflect.