Page 117 - Manual for Activities directed at the Underwater Cultural Heritage

thermo-luminescence or sedimentology studies may be considered, but not all may be appropriate. Dendro-chronology, for example, is only appropriate if certain wood species are present and if enough samples can be taken. On the other hand, it then also produces information on the provenance of that wood. If the question is about construction techniques, (e.g., a shipwreck lost at a known time in history), then the techniques may focus on three-dimensional recording of the structure of the site. More often than not, a chosen approach can contribute to several aims at once, thus adding to the efficiency of the drafted project.
The Project Design needs to clearly advise the competent authority about the technical equipment that will be used, how it will be used and the extent of site disturbance. This will enable the authority to assess the relevance of the project in relation to its long term impact on the site.
Unfortunately, some television documentaries have given the false impression that greater technical resources mean better scientific results, so that un- derwater archaeology has come to be seen as so- mething hugely complex and expensive. What is overlooked is that in a difficult environment like the marine environment, an excess of equipment is not only a drain on financial resources, but actually tends to create problems which then have to be solved, leaving less time for investigating the site.
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 © M. Manders-Ghostwreck Project. Controlling a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to survey a Dutch trading ship from the beginning of 17th century, Gotska Sandön, Sweden.
In the case of a deep site in clear waters, such as the ”ghost wreck”, a presumably Dutch Baltic trader of around the late 16th or early 17th century, are the use of an Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to survey and produce images is the obvious choice of technique.
 © Zea Harbour Project. Digital survey of a submerged tower, Piraeus, Greece.
Archaeologists from the Danish-Greek Zea Harbour Project digitally survey a partly-submerged tower in the fortifications of the Classical- period naval base in Mounichia Harbour (modern Mikrolimano). In the shoreline interface the
5th century BC harbour tower is documented using terrestrial archaeological methods, such as total-station survey, and in the sea, underwater archaeological methods (Zea Harbour Project 2006).
Objective, methodology and techniques