Sauro Gelichi – författare

Among the many myths surrounding Venice's origins is the legend that it was founded by refugees fleeing to the lagoon to escape barbarians. Early Medieval Venice draws on written sources and archaeological evidence to deconstruct the myths and provide a thorough history of the birth of one of the world's most famous cities.During the sixth to eighth centuries, the Venetian duchy developed slowly from Byzantine military structures and fought to assert its autonomy against the powers of the Lombard kingdom and Carolingian empire on the Italian mainland, as well as the threat from the Slavs and the Saracens in the east. A political community slowly formed, which, during the ninth and tenth centuries, laid the foundations for the extraordinary commercial growth of the Venetian duchy. In this latter period, the city of Venice was born in Rialto, winning out over many other centres in the lagoon, including Metamauco, Equilo, Torcello, and Cittanova. An important part of this account is the material face of the new city of Venice: the houses, churches, and the Doge's Palace, in a city made almost entirely of wood and grappling with problems such as water supply. Although new, Venice sought to build its identity by establishing a relationship with antiquity, both through its links with Byzantium as the heir to Rome and through spolia, thereby recycling materials from older structures into new ones.

Between 2007 and 2012 the Department for Underwater Archaeology of the Croatian Conservation Institute from Zagreb and the Department of Humanistic Studies of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice collaborated in the recording, underwater excavation and analysis of the unusually well-preserved wreck of a 16th century Venetian merchantman in the Svetti Pavao shallow off the southern shore of the island of Mljet, Croatia. The shipwreck preserved many personal possessions of the crew as well as a number of bronze artillery pieces and the remains of a cargo of luxury and richly decorated ceramic material from Iznik and other oriental workshops.Although the excavation is not complete, this volume presents the results of the project so far. The methodological and technical aspects of the underwater investigation of the site, mainly by photogrammetry, are described; the historical and archaeological context of navigation in the late Medieval period in the eastern Mediterranean discussed; and the recovered artefacts described and catalogued in detail, together with the remains of the ship and its equipment that, because of depth and of problems of conservation, have been left in situ. The conservation and restoration of the finds are described in an appendix.