Arts and Law

Emerging uses of the oceans are interfering with the preservation of underwater cultural heritage. Increasingly, international communications require an international submarine cable network. At the same time, the discipline of underwater heritage has finally created a serious legal framework to protect underwater cultural heritage from illegal activities. The crucial issue, however, is whether legal activitiessuch as laying submarine cablesthreaten the protection of underwater cultural heritage, or whether the protection of this heritage conflicts with the best route for laying the submarine cables. Surprisingly little attention has been given to this aspect of heritage management.

One of the most important laboratories for the observation of rare events used 120 archaeological lead bricks from a 2000-year-old shipwreck for research into particle physics because of its low radioactivity. The dilemma is whether there is any justification for using underwater cultural heritage for the purpose of modern scientific research. The definition and attribution of values to archaeological and cultural material have changed throughout history. Although all values are valid, individuals and organisations emphasise some more than others.

Predictions forecast changes in climate that may affect cultural heritage in the future. Not only will our underwater cultural heritage become exposed, but also our land tangible cultural heritage will be submerged: entire nations and their cultural heritage may disappear, losing their identity. In fact, climate change has the potential to increase the sea level enough by 2100 to inundate 136 sites considered by UNESCO as cultural and historical treasures. However, climate change damage on cultural heritage is not only a warning as already it has caused damages to some cultural heritage. As a consequence, and although in the realm of archaeology preservation, in situ usually is the first option, climate change challenges the norm as it has an impact on cultural heritage. This study examines the specific climate changes that oceans will most likely suffer and how they will probably affect tangible cultural heritage. It also explores cases of heritage that already are suffering the consequences. Lastly, the article proposes a new partnership natural/cultural resources and the qualification of cultural heritage as a natural resource for its preservation, establishing the same common measures against climate change.

Studies of computer-mediated communication often focus on whether electronic language is more like writing or speech, and they generally conclude that it falls somewhere in the middle. However, my research into mobile phone text messaging suggests that texters are actively drawing on resources familiar to them from written and spoken discourse in construing what can be considered a language variety in its own right. As illustrated by the text message in the title of this chapter, texters draw on principles of spelling variation which reflect practices in written language. They also draw on creativity typical of conversational speech, including idioms and repetition. The observation that texters draw on written and spoken discourse in this way is important because it highlights their linguistic awareness, which, in turn, has implications for the role of texting in language teaching.