Today the Museum of Underwater Archaeology releases the third of four sets of papers from the proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage. 20 papers and 4 videos or written interviews by session organizers describe the various sessions and concerns faced in the field. Today’s sessions include:
Session 9: History and Current Trends of Underwater Archaeology around East Asia (organizer: Akifumi Iwabuchi)
Session 10: Indigenous Cultural Landscapes and Biocultural Resources in Hawaii and the Pacific (organizer: Kehau Watson; additional interviews with William Alia Jr. and Kepa Maly)
Session 11: World War II and Underwater Cultural Heritage in the Pacific (organizer: Bill Jeffery)
Session 12: Underwater Cultural Heritage of Southeast Asia (organizer: Nia Hasana)
You can view the collections here:
I was fortunate enough to attend a UNESCO regional meeting on Underwater Cultural Heritage held in the magnificent Istanbul Archaeology Museum in October 2010. Of the eighteen nations from the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea region that were formally represented, no less than fourteen (or nearly 80%) have ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001). Another part of the world where there has been a very significant level of ratification has been Latin America and the Caribbean and one really important consequence of this has been the decline in official, state-supported, treasure hunting activities in these areas. On the other hand there are large areas of the world where very few countries have ratified the Convention – Northern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and, sadly, my own region in Asia and the Pacific. Of the forty-eight nations included in the UNESCO region of Asia and the Pacific, for example, only two countries have ratified the Convention – Cambodia and Iran (or less than 5% of the countries in the region). There are, of course, many complex geo-political reasons why individual nations, or indeed whole regions, have failed to ratify this Convention in the nearly ten years since it was passed by UNESCO in late 2001. Some countries (like Australia) make much of the difficulties associated with federal nations trying to bring state and federal legislation into line with the provisions of the Convention and other countries claim to have issues with sovereignty and flagged vessels. I remain unconvinced by this kind of rhetoric and suspect that many countries are simply unwilling to expend funds in what is seen to be a relatively ‘unimportant’ area. 
Michelle Damian has posted a new entry to her online journal which records her experiences as she continues her research on Japanese ship construction as seen in woodblock prints. In this entry Michelle discusses some of the continuing “mysteries” that she is trying to solve as her research and writing draws to a close. Her post includes one puzzling example from the artwork and a request for help from the audience. You can read this latest post here:
The Underwater Blogger 