Page 25 - Manual for Activities directed at the Underwater Cultural Heritage

Heritage management takes care of heritage so that the community at large can identify with authentic remains. The context and setting of these remains are an integral part of their authenticity. This is true for underwater cultural heritage as for any other category. Though the site of a shipwreck might be considered completely fortuitous, it nevertheless provides the context of that find and determines its significance. Large-scale destructive displacements of heritage to encyclopaedic museums, from the 18th century onwards, have made it all the more clear to what extent the original context and authentic qualities suffer from intervention. Authenticity and context are therefore important arguments for heritage being best preserved where it is found.
Practical lessons
Lessons of the past are
highly relevant. The re-
coveries of extensive un-
derwater heritage, for ins-
tance those of the Vasa and
the Mary Rose wrecks,
have promoted the appre-
ciation of underwater cultural heritage enormously. They have also suggested that ultimately such recovery would be the appropriate practice in underwater archaeology, while at the same time calling attention to the issue of limited capacities. The
© Deep Sea Productions. Sculptures from a 17th century shipwreck located in the Baltic Sea and preserved in situ.The wreck of this Dutch cargo vessel lying
at a depth of about 130 m was discovered by chance in 2003.This unique Dutch fluyt of great historic significance stands upright, with
the masts still standing, and offers a unique opportunity to examine a typical ship engaged in the largest and most profitable trade in Europe in this period. Consideration
of in situ preservation and the
cost of investigation required a clear definition of the scope of intervention, the careful formulation and prioritization of relevant research questions, so that the product of expensive bottom time could yield relevant and significant historic information.
The archaeological investigation of this essentially intact ship at 130 m depth required both new technical solutions and advanced underwater methodology as the wreck could not be raised or excavated easily. Therefore, the documentation and sampling was carried out remotely by ROV mounted multibeam echosounders and high definition cameras.Wood and sediment samples also had to be recovered from the site, along with one artifact (a man-size wooden sculpture), with minimal damage to the recovered material or surrounding context. While the ship remains conserved in situ, it is due to non-intrusive detailed mapping of the wreck site and a 3-D model that the scientists can reconstruct the site as well as both the exterior and interior of the ship. Some 100,000 well-preserved shipwrecks and maritime related constructions are supposed to be found on the seabed of the Baltic. They have so far been protected from aggressive shipworms due to the low salinity in the water, but it seems that the shipworms are now spreading as a result of climatic changes.
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- Promote in situ preservation where, and whenever possible
- Promote research related to development- led archaeology
General Principles