Asia-Pacific Underwater Cultural Heritage – By Dr. Mark Staniforth

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.

Underwater Cultural Heritage in Oceania

The folks at UNESCO have announced the digital publication of, “Underwater Cultural Heritage in Oceania.” You can view the PDF version here:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001887/188770e.pdf

Underwater Cultural Heritage in Oceania

Our thanks go out to Barbara Egger for sending that link to us.

What Can Art Teach Us About Maritime History and Ship Construction?

Japanese maritime historian and underwater archaeologist Michelle Damian continues her online journal detailing the research and writing of her MA thesis on Japanese wooden boats as depicted in woodblock prints. After completing her first year of PhD studies she is taking the summer to dive back into writing her MA thesis. Her new post shares some of what she has learned over the last year giving readers another peek at how future maritime historians and underwater archaeologists are trained. To view her new post click entry number 8 “Returning” in the left menu. http://www.uri.edu/artsci/his/mua/project_journals/aj/aj_intro.shtml

Also new on the site…

Amer Kahn of Flinders university wraps up his post on training underwater archaeologists in Sri Lanka. Amer worked with UNESCO to train future trainers in that regions efforts to preserve there submerged cultural resources. Select “Final Update” in the left menu to see the wrap up entry here: http://www.uri.edu/artsci/his/mua/project_journals/un/un_intro.shtml

The MUA is proud to spread the word about the important work done in an area of the world that has received little attention in the west.

Up Next…

New projects, training videos for the MUA school kits, and updates from around the world all coming soon. It’s going to be a busy summer.

Best regards,

T Kurt Knoerl
Director
The Museum of Underwater Archaeology