Specialty Courses

  £50 course fee, 5 credits for NAS members.  Learn about the history of cannon development from the late middle ages through to the 19th century and how to identify key features of cannon manufactured in Europe. Also, get tips from the professionals about how to record cannon above or below the water. While the course is online in delivery, you'll finish with practical skills in how to record cannon and use them to monitor and identify archaeological sites. The course will take about four to six hours if completed in one sitting but you can complete it at your own pace.    Course development has been supported by a grant from Historic England  

£50 course fee, 5 credits for NAS members; This is a course for beginners on how to use the technique of photogrammetry to record artefacts, features and sites to create 3D models of them for use in maritime archaeology.; Anyone can complete this theory course, but to create the 3D models participants will require reasonably new computers with AMD or Nvidia graphics card. Note that MAC users will only be able to use one of the two recommended photogrammetry programmes in Module 6. Course development has been supported by a grant from Historic England

This online introductory course for people with little or no experience of GIS will provide an overview of features in QGIS – a freely available GIS software package commonly used by archaeologists. While the skills learned during this course are applicable to archaeology in general, there will be a focus on use of the programme for maritime archaeology. In their own time, participants will watch seven recorded video tutorials (total time 1.5hours) with accompanying exercises and assignments - therefore the overall course will take several hours depending on the participant's ability. To complete the course and earn NAS credits it is compulsory to attend at least one of three hour long live online sessions with an expert tutor to experience a final presentation and ask any required questions. They are scheduled 10, 15 and 20 March 2025. £40 Course fee. 5 credits for NAS members.

£40 course fee. 5 credits for NAS members. Learn how to contribute to the MoD's potentially polluting wrecks programme by completing this pre-requisite course for NAS MoD diving projects. Learn to safely dive on military wrecks, identify environmental and explosive hazards on wrecks and write useful desk-based assessments on potentially polluting wrecks.This course consists of four hours of videos to watch at your own pace, followed by two live online sessions 7-9pm GMT on 18 and 20 November 2025.

Through a combination of pre-recorded videos (3 hours duration) and a live online discussion session (1-4pm BST Wednesday 22nd October 2025), get an introductory understanding of the theory of archaeological science and conservation of marine finds.This course can be taken in conjunction with the practical course on Archaeological Science and Conservation of Marine Finds, held at Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth UK on 7th November 2025This course is for anyone with an interest in scientific analysis and examination of artefacts and ecofacts from wreck sites. This course completements the practical course mentioned above as well as many other courses on conservation.

£40 course fee. 5 credits for NAS members. Get an introduction to the theory and technique of completing archaeological illustrations from the comfort of your own home. The live online course is a combination of presentations, practical exercises and feedback from the expert tutor. Using household items as substitutes for real artefacts, learn the basic skills necessary to produce archaeological illustrations of pottery and small finds. Course consists of one live online session 9am-5pm GMT (including breaks) on Saturday 8th November 2025.

£40 course fee. 5 credits for NAS members. Get an introduction to digital illustration techniques for recording archaeological finds from the comfort of your own home. Using the free open source illustration programme Inkscape, you’ll learn how to create accurate illustrations of artefacts to add to the heritage record and for use in publications. You’ll learn the basic skills necessary to produce digital illustrations of pottery and small finds.Participants are required to have completed the NAS Archaeological Illustration course or provide evidence that they have equivalent experience. The Archaeological Illustration course is being held online on 8 November 2024.The digital illustration course consists of several modules of presentations and exercises to be completed at your own pace and several optional live online sessions with the expert tutor to take place in February 2026.

Get an introduction to the theory and technique of completing archaeological illustrations from the comfort of your own home. Using household items as substitutes for real artefacts, learn the basic skills necessary to produce archaeological illustrations of pottery and small finds. Then you'll be ready to illustrate real artefacts when the opportunity arises.On this online course, participants will gain an understanding of the difference between a drawing and archaeological illustration. Using household items as substitutes, participants will learn how to set up an artefact for an archaeological drawing and then how to draw it. Online lectures will be combined with set illustration tasks to provide an interactive and practical online experience. Under expert online guidance, participants will produce an illustration of an item of pottery and a small find made of wood, metal or leather.By completing this course using household items, participants will get an introduction to the illustration skills that can then be applied to real archaeological artefacts when it is possible to access them.

Learn how to contribute to the MoD's potentially polluting wrecks programme by completing this pre-requisite course for NAS MoD diving projects. Learn to safely dive on military wrecks, identify environmental and explosive hazards on wrecks and write useful desk-based assessments on potentially polluting wrecks.This course consists of four hours of videos to watch at your own pace, followed by two live online sessions.

Learn how to safely dive on military wrecks and help to identify environmental and explosive hazards on wrecks. This course is a pre-requisite for NAS MOD diving projects. The next course is 7-9pm BST 5 and 8 June 2023. Book on our events page or contact nas@nauticalarchaeologysociety.org