History of the museum

The national museum of underwater archaeology has its origins in the old board of underwater archaeological excavations, created in Cartagena in 1970, the embryo of the later underwater archaeology center.
The work developed in those years, in which many roman shipwrecks were located and some excavated were foundations that influenced the ministry of culture to create the national museum of maritime archaeology and national center for archaeological research submarine in 1980.

The new institution was opened in 1982 in Cartagena, which co-incided with the celebration of the sixth international congress on underwater archaeology.
The ministerial decree of 23rd Febuary 1983 defined the museum as responsible at state-level regarding the managment, coordination of studies, inventories, processing, restoration plus conversation of maritime archaeological materials, recovered from the sea or the surface, and documents or copies related to acient maritime routes.