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Underwater landscapes are well preserved and can provide great insights into the culture and trade of ancient civilisations, as Robert Prescott explains

The survey and excavation of archaeological sites under water began in the 19th century but has been gathering pace in the past 50 years, spurred on initially by the development of scuba-diving gear and more recently by technological improvements involving remote sensing and the ability to work at ever-increasing depths. Strictly speaking, underwater archaeology includes both freshwater and saltwater sites, but the present volumes deal almost exclusively with marine sites.

Maritime archaeology embraces the study of shipwrecks and a range of other sites (including natural features) submerged beneath the sea as a result of tectonic and other forces that have produced changes in sea level. Thus it is possible to study drowned prehistoric landscapes, ships and their sunken cargoes and harbours of classical and late antiquity that lie submerged at varying depths off the coasts. Because of their immersion in saltwater, these sites possess characteristics that set them apart from terrestrial archaeological deposits. The preservation of waterlogged organic materials may be excellent (though costly in terms of the conservation required before they can be exposed to public view). Perhaps more significantly, these sites have often escaped subsequent development that would have obliterated the details of earlier cultural phases (like the Phoenician settlements later overbuilt by Roman colonies). In the case of shipwrecks, the dramatic circumstances surrounding a sudden wrecking have the advantage of providing a snapshot of material culture in a closed site representing a particular moment in time.

Much good and bad archaeology has occurred in this field over the past 50 years, however the sheer weight and significance of what has been revealed by underwater archaeology is surely ripe for synthesis now.

The publishers tell us that the Encyclopaedia of Underwater Archaeology will run to 22 volumes. It may therefore be wise to reserve judgement, on the basis of the first four volumes in the series, as to whether this will be the synthesis we seek. (One more volume has appeared since this review was written.) However, what can be said is that the target audience is not entirely clear, and that the scope and quality of these early volumes vary considerably. This encyclopaedia is not an alphabetically arranged reference book designed to answer questions concisely and quickly, and the volumes have no index. It is instead a series of articles outlining ship and harbour archaeology across time and in different geographical regions.

Some parts of the work are clearly aimed at a high-level university or professional audience, while others are more popular in tone. Though the volumes are lavishly illustrated in colour, the illustrations often add little to the text and are frequently poorly captioned.

Volume one is devoted to history and methodology. The simple account of technical methods provides only a superficial picture of what is being deployed by the best practitioners today. Perhaps this criticism could be levelled at anyone foolhardy enough to devote a separate work to methodology in such a rapidly developing area of research. Even so, the coverage is uneven and often thin: for example, both carbon-14 and thermoluminescence-dating methods are treated briefly together on a single page. In general, the historical passages in this volume are more satisfactory than the methodological sections.

George Bass's account of the discovery and excavation of the wreck at Uluburun in southern Turkey (1300BC), and his handsome tribute to Cemal Pulak, his colleague and former student, provide a fascinating personal insight into one of the classic periods of underwater archaeology and illustrate the formidable range of skills brought to the subject by the team that did so much to establish its academic credibility. However, the overall coverage in this volume is too simplistic for all but a lay audience.

The next three volumes focus on the Mediterranean basin from the Bronze Age to the medieval period. Volume two, covering Phoenician and Greek seafaring, provides a good balance between shipwreck and harbour studies.

These two great seafaring cultures built some of the finest ships to sail the ancient Mediterranean. Though later Roman vessels were more numerous and of much greater tonnage, they were in many ways inferior in terms of design and technology compared with the products of Phoenicia and Greece that they displaced.

Though the bulk of the text is the work of the editor, there are a number of pieces by specialist contributors describing, albeit briefly, such seminal excavations as those of the wrecks at Cape Gelidonya, Ma'agan Mikhael and Kyrenia, and the harbours of Tyre, Sidon, Halieis, Samos and Piraeus. It is a volume that leaves one thirsting for more.

Volume three, Mare Nostrum , edited by Muriel Moity, addresses the most extensively studied period in the maritime archaeology of the Mediterranean. More than 1,000 ancient wrecks have been located in the Mediterranean, three quarters of which date from the years 200BC to AD200, when Rome dominated the Mediterranean and controlled the principal trade routes. Some of the most significant studies of Roman commerce have been founded on shipwreck archaeology. Yet, curiously, this volume is the second shortest; only that on history and methodology is briefer. The choice of some illustrations is puzzling: given the wealth of authentic images available, it is surprising to find the Carthaginian Wars illustrated by the paintings of the 16th-century artist Jacopo Ripanda.

In volume four, which covers the Mediterranean in late antiquity, we can discern better the publisher's aim to appeal more to a university audience.

The work is edited by Sean Kingsley, who writes a number of intelligent, lively and informative link passages connecting the contributions of 11 expert authors who write about the ship and harbour projects they have carried out.

The volume includes classic sites such as the 4th and 7th-century Yassi Ada wrecks, here described by Frederick van Doorninck, and some recent finds, such the remarkable group of a dozen Roman vessels and six medieval ships exposed in 1999-2001 by civil engineering works at the modern port of Olbia in Sardinia, discussed here by Rubens d'Oriano and Edoardo Riccardi.

Kingsley's account of the structural decay of the illustrious ports of the Roman Empire in late antiquity shows how these changes were associated with the subtle adaptation of shipbuilding, seafaring and maritime commerce to new, less state-dependent, patterns. This period of dynamic political change was associated with significant technological innovation such as the emergence of frame-first shipbuilding, which is described clearly. The text is accessible yet scholarly and well illustrated with site plans and photographs (at last, in this volume, many of the illustrations have a scale included). Undergraduate archaeologists and historians will find much to captivate and inform them. Professional archaeologists will also feel more at home with the level at which this is pitched, and if they are not already experts in the history and archaeology of the Mediterranean, they will find Kingsley's historical link passages helpful. The bibliography is far more extensive than those in the earlier volumes and offers a sound entry guide to the field for the newcomer.

So how promising is this new publishing venture? Looking at these four volumes together, one has the feeling that the project is evolving as it unfolds. There is an upward trend in the page-runs, the number of authors credited with pieces and the number of items cited in the bibliographies across the four volumes. Unlike the last two volumes, the first two appear without a named author or editor on the title page. The selection and captioning of illustrations is also more satisfactory in volume four.

Perhaps we should record an open verdict on the project, so much of which has yet to appear. All we are presented with thus far is an account of Mediterranean seafaring, which, after a faltering start in the earlier volumes, becomes much better once we reach late antiquity. One has to hope that the standard of volume four can be maintained and improved on when the series turns to other geographical areas, such as northern Europe in Viking and medieval times, the Caribbean in the early modern period and, to cite one area that is rapidly being opened up to exploration, the waters of South-East Asia.

For the present, however, readers seeking ready answers to questions about underwater archaeology and looking for concise and authoritative descriptions of sites across the globe will have to turn to James Delgado's Encyclopaedia of Underwater and Maritime Archaeology , published in 1997, with its 490 pages of alphabetical entries on some 500 topics.

Robert Prescott is inaugural director, Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies, St Andrews University.