The Shipwrecks of Pisa: Management, Professional Optimism, and Bureaucratic Myopia

Summary

Between 1998 and 2000 archaeologists discovered nine well-preserved Roman shipwrecks at San Rossore, Pisa, 500m from the leaning tower. Shortly afterward a grand vision for a "museum with three vertices" was articulated: a public excavation area plus a conservation laboratory and museum of Mediterranean navigation, to be constructed in a underused 16th century barracks nearby. But despite urgent conservation needs, neither the public excavation nor the laboratory opened until 2005, while the museum is still unfinished. Irregular and unpredictable budgets caused organizational chaos, while the inclusion of the project in the City of Pisa’s urban redevelopment efforts added complexity and delays. Moreover, the grand vision of three interconnected institutions became an obstacle in itself: in the absence of an administrative culture that was able to bring projects "down to earth", the universalist and utopian tendencies of professional discourse fostered a tendency to choose the "best" project over the most feasible one, adding cost, risk, and uncertainty to an already challenging project. Based on extensive archival research, our paper reconstructs the 15-year history of the project and explores the emergent management issues at this unique site, including the role of professional optimism, bureaucratic myopia, urban planning, and uncertainty.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage