Introduction

The project ‘Coastal lagoons and their hidden cultural heritage: the exploitation of lagoonal environments in Roman Italy’, is a two-year project diachronically investigating both the exploitation of coastal lagoons and the type of settlements therein. There is a particular focus on the Roman period and the Venetian lagoon. The project, which sees the participation of two research units (Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, P.I. Prof. Annalisa Marzano; Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Co.I Prof. Daniela Cottica), is financed by the EU and the Italian Ministry of University and Research under the funding scheme PRIN-PNRR 2022 (project  P2022WLSJN). It will cast light on the evidence for fishing practices, the processing of marine goods, the associated structures and domestic settlements, and subsequent trade in marine products.