Underwater Cultural Heritage

The most common mechanism by which underwater archaeological sites throughout the world are protected is by using cultural heritage legislation. In 1982 the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provided that ‘States have the duty to protect objects of an archaeological and historical nature found at sea and shall cooperate for this purpose’. National and state or provincial governments have the right to enact and enforce legislation and regulations for the protection and preservation of underwater cultural heritage lying in or under their internal waters, territorial seas and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), in some cases as far out as the edge of the Continental Shelf. In more recent years, multilateral attempts to control activity on, and to create standards for the conduct of archaeological research on, underwater cultural heritage sites, such as shipwrecks, have led to the creation of firstly the ICOMOS Charter for the Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage secondly, and perhaps more significantly, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001.

Il turismo archeologico subacqueo in Italia: opportunità e rischi
1. Una straordinaria opportunità
2. Elitismo gentrificato e slow diving
3. Una pratica virtuale ed educativa
4. Mondo blu e mondo grigio: l’alterità del turismo subacqueo
5. Una cura per un sistema cancerizzato? Il caso di Siracusa
6. La chimera del turismo sostenibile: le Cinque Terre e Capri
7. I percorsi subacquei di Ustica: turismo e archeologia
8. Autenticità e spazi marini: Ustica e Corfu
9. Turisti, archeologi o pirati? Spot e archeologia subacquea
10. Atlantide e il turismo subacqueo pseudo-archeologico
11. Ustica: il museo delle anfore tra voyeurismo e necrofilia
12. Dal mito alla realtà: i percorsi fantasma di Ustica
13. Il sontuoso mondo di Baia e la nascita del turismo
14. Il parco sommerso di Baia e il Ninfeo di Punta Epitaffio
15. La vendetta del Ciclope: un percorso difficile

From 2007–2011, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) and the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology (ARQUA) collaborated in the excavation of a Phoenician shipwreck at Bajo de la Campana, located off the south-eastern coast of Spain near Cartagena. This article provides an overview of the project—research design, excavation techniques, archaeological materials recovered from the site, and the ongoing conservation and study programmes—in light of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and its promotion of in-situ preservation. Various methods of in-situ preservation are reviewed, as well as alternate approaches to underwater cultural heritage.

Chapter in the Training Manual for the UNESCO Foundation Course  on the Protection and Management  of Underwater Cultural Heritage  in Asia and the Pacific from 2012. It is describing the use of in situ preservation as a tool in underwater cultural heritage management

Cet article analyse les règles que le droit international consacre à la protection du patrimoine culturel subaquatique. À cet effet, dans une première partie, il entreprend un survol général de la matière. Après une brève analyse de la notion de patrimoine culturel subaquatique et des menaces qui pèsent sur ce dernier, il examine les divers instruments internationaux qui portent sur cette question. Une attention particulière sera consacrée au droit de la mer et plus spécialement à l’analyse de la Convention des Nations unies sur le droit de la mer de 1982. La deuxième partie est en revanche consacrée à la Convention de l'UNESCO de 2001 sur la protection du patrimoine culturel subaquatique.

The study of the findings and ladings of shipwreck at underwater archaeological site in the Sea of Java, Cirebon is the early potential to create an underwater archaeological museum in Indonesia. The museum aims to utilize material culture which is developed and presented in long term themes at the museum. Museum has strategic role as an education, communication and publication space from various knowledge. This is a comparison study between the material culture of Nan Han Cargo shipwreck site and various concepts of underwater archaeological museum applied some countries, one of them is Southeast Asia Experiental Maritime Museum in Singapore. Result of the study, through the comparison study, obtains the design and program for the museum theme to be applied at the underwater archaological museum in New Museology perspective.

Keywords: Nan Han Cargo Shipwreck, Design and Museum Programs, New Museology, Underwater Archaeological Museum in Indonesia.

Three Dutch naval ships, HNLMS De Ruyter, HNLMS Java and HNLMS Kortenaer went down in the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942, claiming the lives of 915 sailors. In November 2016 an international diving team from the Karel Doorman Foundation discovered that the warships had disappeared.

The management and protection of shipwrecks from the Second World War is very complicated, because of the different values that different stakeholders attach to it. These WWII shipwrecks are often war graves, important to relatives as lieux de mémoire. The shipwrecks thus have an emotional, commemoration value, but they also have a historical, archaeological and intrinsic value. If WWII shipwrecks are investigated using archaeological methods, they can provide new information on the WWII period, but it can also change certain details. To the salvors the shipwrecks have an economic value, but they actually have several economic values as they also bring in diving tourists, and they are fishing spots for the local fishermen. These different values played a major role during the joint Dutch-Indonesian investigation that followed after the notification that the three Dutch warships had disappeared from the bottom of the Java Sea.

Only with proper understanding and consideration of the different values or significances the WWII shipwrecks hold to different stakeholders, new ways of managing these complex sites may be developed that will be effective in the long run. Countries and different stakeholder groups must work together on this.

Until recently, the general view of archaeologists was that southern Scandinavia was uninhabited during the last ice age, the Weichselian glaciation. On the basis of recent climate reconstructions and glaciological data, combined with recent faunal finds from the adjacent North Sea sectors, this paper argues that large parts of the Scandinavian North Sea sector were actually inhabitable during most of this glacial period, with the presence of extensive ice free coastal zones even during the Last Glacial Maximum. Furthermore, ethnoarchaeological evidence, together with findings from excavations of mammoth-hunter sites, is used to argue that the large quantities of megafaunal remains fished up from the North Sea in recent years should be seriously considered as representing settlement material associated with mammoth-hunter camps dating from the second half of the Weichselian glaciation. The question is whether these faunal remains from the North Sea represent sites similar to the mammoth-hunter camps known from other parts of Europe and from Siberia?

This paper outlines the role played by ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), which is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to the conservation of the world's cultural monuments and sites and specifically in awareness raising and training related to underwater cultural heritage protection. ICOMOS membership requires an individual to be a practicing cultural heritage professional or have professional qualifications in the fields of conservation or preservation such as architect, archaeologist, town planner, and engineer, administrator of heritage, art historian or archivist. ICOMOS International Scientific Committees (ISCs) (such as ICUCH) are the vehicles through which ICOMOS brings together, develops and serves its worldwide membership according to their fields of specialized interest. ICOMOS expects the ISCs to be at the heart of scientific inquiry and exchange in their domains and to share knowledge among them to foster multi-disciplinary approaches to heritage protection and management. ICUCH (International Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage) was founded in 1991 by ICOMOS Australia to promote international cooperation in the protection and management of underwater cultural heritage and to advise ICOMOS on issues related to underwater cultural heritage around the world. ICUCH currently has ten members from the Asia and the Pacific region and this paper will discuss the role of ICUCH in the region. Furthermore ICUCH’s mission will only be achieved in conjunction with other stakeholders, such as the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS). NAS training aims to increase public awareness at local, provincial and national levels about the extent and nature of underwater and maritime cultural heritage as well as about underwater and maritime archaeology.

Since 2008 an international research team working with archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology (IA) has employed collaborative, multi-disciplinary approaches to community engagement, awareness raising, cooperative training and capacity building activities associated with underwater cultural heritage in Vietnam. This helps Vietnam to preserve, protect and valorize underwater cultural heritage by capitalizing on the annual presence of experienced maritime archaeologists, and other researchers, conducting the Bach Dang river and Van Don Battlefield Research Project.

This paper considers abandoned ships in Australia primarily using data obtained from two research projects conducted by staff and students in the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia - the Garden Island Ships’ Graveyard Project (GISG) and the Abandoned Ships Project (ASP). These two projects involved the compilation of a database, partly based on historical sources, which revealed the potential for over 1500 abandoned watercraft sites in Australia, and partly based on archaeological information, from the inspection of the remains of more than 120 deliberately discarded vessels. This data was used to assess the correlation between discard activities and economic, social, and technological events. The logistics of discard, as reflected in commentaries describing discard procedures, and as seen in the archaeological signatures of these events, were also examined. This information was used to illustrate the causal relationships between landscape, economic trends, regulatory frameworks and cultural site formation processes associated with harm minimisation, placement assurance, salvage and discard activities. The fieldwork was initiated by one author (Staniforth) and much of the fieldwork was carried out as part of the other author’s doctoral research (Richards, 2002; 2008).

This presentation discusses the perspectives and
consequences arising from ongoing developments in maritime
archaeology, involving a shift in focus predominantly on
shipwrecks to one concentrating on submerged settlements –
primarily from the Stone Age – down to depths of 140 m. More
specifically, it deals with the practical problems (and possible
solutions) associated with mapping settlements, which is a more difficult operation than the mapping of shipwrecks.
Firstly (II), the paper discusses the scientific value of
submerged settlements in relation to those accessible on land, for example the good conditions for the preservation of organic
artefacts, environmental data, aDNA etc. Furthermore, social
anthropological data suggest that the groups we find evidence of along the highly productive prehistoric marine coast lines may well have differed from inland groups who were unable to extend their territories out to the coast.
Secondly (III), it outlines some possible methodological
solutions to our present problem of cost-effective site mapping,
all based on acoustics.
Finally (IV), the paper discusses strategic and legislative
perspectives associated with the new maritime archaeological
focus on settlements and new technological possibilities in this
respect. This change of focus in archaeology, underpinned by the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater
Cultural Heritage, raises many important economic and strategic questions; these are discussed.

This paper explores the ethics of underwater cultural heritage in Indonesia within the context of the commercial excavation of these sites. Focusing specifically on the 9th century ‘Belitung’ shipwreck, discovered in 1998, the article argues that underwater cultural heritage sites become objects, in the heritage sense, only at the point of their excavation. Prior to discovery and excavation, the value of the Belitung wreck as a cultural or historical informant is greatly diminished by its invisibility and virtual inaccessibility. The ethics of commercial underwater excavation remain contested, but this does not exclude the notion that the transition, from hidden to discovered to excavated object, can be posited as a turning point in how underwater cultural heritage sites are valued. By permitting commercial excavation, Indonesia has broadened the potential for these sites beyond in-situ preservation or exposure to unlicensed ‘treasure hunters’.  The article ultimately argues that commercial excavation can prompt a reconsideration of how we understand ethics in the context of underwater cultural heritage and attests to the ongoing importance of materiality in heritage considerations.

Presentación del patrimonio cultural subacuático de la región de Latino América y el caribe así como de la Convención de la UNESCO de 200, en la revista "Cultura y Desarrollo" de la UNESCO (nº 13, 2015) dedicada a la protección del patrimonio cultural subacuático.

"This paper tries to address the paradoxical situation that arguments to protect
maritime heritage invariably include international significance, whereas it is
seemingly impossible to put flesh on that international dimension. The issue is
discussed in the light of four discourses or themes. Firstly the international characteristics
of the archaeological discipline are discussed in the context of
national practice and regulation. Secondly maritime heritage and its importance
for overarching themes in human history are juxtaposed to World Heritage nominations
and their role in present-day society. Thirdly the development of standard
setting instruments at UNESCO and the Council of Europe is discussed
from the perspective of a wider international project. The last theme focuses on
a discussion on ‘ownership’ in an international perspective. Although international
heritage is an attractive proposition that is crucial to the emancipation of
maritime heritage, the inevitable conclusion is that it does not presently exist.
Its theoretical existence is not accepted in practice. In discussing ways of
improving the future management of maritime heritage in international waters it
is argued that much depends on the inclusive interpretation of the concept of ‘a
verifiable link’ according to the 2001 UNESCO Convention. The Convention
builds on sharing of responsibilities. Exclusiveness will stand in the way of any
improvement, as it has done in the past. Nevertheless, it would be natural that
the coastal state will coordinate efforts in the coastal maritime zones. Other
options are legally possible but not attractive from a heritage perspective. The
coastal state, however, should act on behalf of international stakeholders and
will only do so if it accepts that international heritage exists. This acceptance
that international heritage exists is even more vital and inevitable for protection,
cherishing and good use of heritage in the area beyond any national jurisdiction."

the rather unique development under the law of salvage through orders of the U.S. court sitting in admiralty that prohibit the exclusive salvors in possession of the Titanic, RMS Titanic, Inc. and Premier Exhibitions, Inc. (RMST/PE) from selling individual artifacts and instead require that RMST/PE keep the collection of artifacts salvaged from the Titanic together as an intact collection for the public benefit. Finally, the article discusses the need for general legislation to protect the Titanic and other underwater cultural heritage from looting and unwanted salvage.

A brief introduction to the history, range and location of Australia’s World War I underwater cultural heritage; an outline of some official and unofficial commemorative activities being planned for the years 2014 to 2018; and a brief discourse on national expectations in regards to the commemoration of military and civilian maritime ‘graves’ and how this is informing policy.

In the Collection of the River Navigation of the Museum of Science and Technology - Belgrade, there are a certain number of well-preserved, typologically and chronologically diverse items from the Danube riverbed, about which basic information are given in this article.

New South Wales has an estimated 1800 historic shipwreck sites and an active Historic Shipwrecks Program, administered by the Heritage Branch, NSW Department of Planning. The Wreck Spotters program was established to help the community manage fragile maritime archaeological sites, both underwater and on land.

This chapter deals with fishing and archaeology. Knowledge held by fishermen has contributed to underwater archaeology's great moments. It is comparable to 'local' knowledge on land, although the locales may be far offshore. To some extent, fishing interests and the management of underwater cultural heritage are at odds but hardly as much as sometimes claimed. Future cooperation with fishermen is of the essence, as the fishing industry has been an essential informer for the development of archaeology offshore, all over the world, and continues to be so. This chapter explores how the development of fishing techniques over the last 150 years has informed prehistoric archaeology of the European continental shelves, notably of the North Sea. It does so through a historical analysis of technological development in its social setting and by highlighting some developments in Dutch fishing communities. It puts collecting of bones and trade in antiquities in perspective. It is mostly concerned, however, with the contingent knowledge base of archaeology and therefore informs archaeological epistemology.

Destinado a ser la máquina de guerra perfecta, este navío (el mayor de su época) simbolizó el ocaso del poderío naval de España en el siglo XVIII y XIX.

Built at the Spanish Royal Nayy Shipyard, La Habana, "El Santisima Trinidad" was bound to the perfect war machine, the mammoth of the seas....

Introduction The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it provides an overview of the physical, biological and chemical processes, along with their environmental and anthropogenic influences that can operate on submerged archaeological sites; secondly, it demonstrates that many of these processes are interlinked, forming interactive systems that need to be adequately understood in order to effectively manage sites in situ. The growing importance of in-situ management is discussed and, as Ortmann et al. (2010) observed, the challenge to practitioners is that in-situ preservation relies heavily on interdisciplinary skills and discourse. Many in-situ processes can be affected by intended or unintended development nearby, or even by management activity on submerged cultural heritage sites. Consequently, projects involving site stabilisation, reburial and corrosion protection are briefly described to highlight in-situ process studies that also demonstrate current best practice in-situ management.

Cultural heritage tourism is a branch of tourism which is often a blend of education, entertainment and preservation. It is experiential, it involves and engages the visitor. Cultural tourism and sustainable development are the best way through which cultural heritage can be best preserved. Conservation, protection and exploitation of the cultural and natural resources are a factor for sustainability, which can be gained by cultural tourism.
Cultural tourism is a broad term, which includes a wide range of cultural, historical and natural sites, artefacts, institutions, organizations etc. Underwater cultural heritage is part of the content of this concept. Coincidentally, UNESCO has said “The seabed is often called "the biggest museum of the world” . The sea has many stories to tell, and there are a lot of stories that audience desires to discover. And the intersection of both is the cultural tourism. 
There are a lot of submerged artefacts in the Bulgarian Black sea aquatory that are waiting to be displayed in situ  or by new multimedia technologies for the nondiving public. They are separated in three groups: submerged settlements, submerged shipwrecks, and harbor water areas. All these objects are sources of valuable information about the people inhabited Black sea coast millennia ago; about their life and culture, customs and traditions; about the relationships between West Black sea coast and the Mediterranean; about the international trade on sea. Effectively conserved, actively managed and attentively socialized the underwater cultural heritage will bring benefits to the local population as well as to the sustainability of the seaside region. An important part of the process of protection and management is the cooperation of the local people. These are the factors through which cultural tourism will build up the economic capacity of the local area.
When Bulgarian underwater cultural and historical heritage is preserved, managed, socialized and its value is appreciated by the local people, it will play an important role in the cultural tourism, which will ensure the sustainable development of the region.

A two-part workshop series titled, Who owns underwater cultural heritage? Perspectives on archaeological law and ethics in the Mediterranean, was convened at Brock University in St Catharines, Ontario (22-25 October 2009) and at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (26-28 March 2010). Over the course of the two sessions, this document emerged through consensus of the participants to reflect principles and best practices for underwater archaeology and the stewardship of underwater cultural heritage.

AN ArrRECIATIoN of the past and of objects of antiquity is a tradition which dates in Ireland from as early as the medieval period. From the seventh century on, native kings patronized the production of books of history, genealogy, and mythology. Much of this material survives and provides fascinating insights into the traditions and beliefs of a native European people largely unaffected by the Classical civilizations of the Mediterranean. Manuscripts themselves became respected objects and those of a religious nature were often enshrined in elaborate caskets. From the eleventh century on arose a tradition of appointing hereditary keepers to look after important treasures. Many of these objects survived in the possession of the families to whom they originally had been entrusted and a collection of them, together with other objects of antiquity, was assembled by the Royal Irish Academy, during the nineteenth century. Soon after the setting up of the National Museum of Ireland in t877, rhe Royal Irish Academy handed over this material, which thereafter formed the core of the museum's Irish antiquities collection. The Royal Irish Academy also functioned as the State's agent in relation to treasure trove finds, and its actions resulted in the preservation, for posterity, of many important ancient treasures of gold and silver.

The lack of a common discoursefor defining of underwater and submerged sites has caused complications in interpretation of anunderwater entity of cultural value as'moveable objects' and 'immoveable sites' in international debates. This issue has been a topic of discussion since the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea which introduced its notions on salvage and protection of archaeological sites and objects found underwater.And recently, it becamean ongoing issue at UNESCO to nominate underwater entities of heritage values in the World Heritage List. Since being included in the World Heritage List gives more visibility to a site and provides more benefits such as international collaboration for protection, conservation and education, as well as increasing economic benefit due tomore tourism attraction, one of the goals at the UNESCO Secretariat of Underwater Cultural Heritage is to justify, first, that many of entities that WH considers as object are sites, and also to justify that they are eligible to be listed as WH since they encompass the necessary criteria. This paper presents an overview of the existing terms, conventions and clashes among ideas, and will conclude that despite the existing international conventions and several definitions for underwater cultural heritage, still a more lucid terminology and defining methodology is required for the cultural heritage under waterin order to improve our management strategies. The paper will highlight the issues with definition of Underwater Cultural heritage in the 2001 Convention, and states that part of the ongoing complexity with defining 'site' and 'objects' are due to the not very sharp definition ofUCH in the Convention. In the end this study will recommend a series of terms and methods for classifying sites and objects.

Maritime Archaeology and Sri Lanka: Globalization, Immigration, and Transformation in the Underwater Archaeological Record
"Assuming that maritime archaeology conducted in Sri Lanka
is new to most readers, the present paper has been written
with a dual purpose. First, it tries to give some background
to the birth and growth of the discipline in this country and
shows its involvement in ICOMOS––ICUCH (International
Council on Monuments and Sites––International Committee
on the Underwater Cultural Heritage) activities. Second, it
tries to deal with the focus of the 2013 SHA conference by
addressing three sites, each of which can be developed into a
case study relating to the conference themes. Sri Lanka was
always a place where East/West shipping interacted, whether
before or after A.D. 1500, and was also always conscious of
the looming presence of India. This paper, however, deals only
with material aspects in the period after 1500."