Submerged Baiae: The Amphitrite Project and the New Underwater Investigations in the Area North of the Channel to Baianus Lacus

The paper presents the preliminary results of the underwater investigations directed by the National Superintendency for Underwater Cultural Heritage (Taranto-Italy) carried out in the area north of the channel to Baianus Lacus in the frame of the ‘Amphitrite Project: underwater archaeology for all in marine digital parks’, funded by the Italian Ministry of Culture. The investigations included analysis, cataloging, and 3D documentation of the architectonical structures related to the so-called ‘Thermae of the fishes’ and the ‘Villa with a prothyrum entrance’, buildings characterizing this area of submerged Baiae; the sector that juts out onto a peninsula of the access channel to the Baianus Lacus. The activities also included excavations of the villa’s atrium with a prothyrum entrance. The results shed new light on the topography of Baiae from the end of the 1st century BC and the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 4th century AD.