Page 35 - Manual for Activities directed at the Underwater Cultural Heritage

archaeological interventions and by doing so, it specifies which services are exempt from the ban on commercial exploitation. Although it is possible in a money-driven economy to express all benefits, activities and services in commercial terms, and to manage them accordingly, paragraph a) clarifies that the provision of professional archaeological services is not what is banned. All archaeological activity can be governed by commercial principles, as long as the activities are authorized in conformity
with the Convention, and as long as the finds that belong to the site are not part of the commercial equation.
The ways of organizing heritage management and of authorizing ac-
tivities directed at underwater cul-
tural heritage may vary in detail
from country to country, although
in each case a competent authority
is involved in overseeing the public aspects. In many cases, professional archaeological services, or the pro-
vision of necessary equipment, are outsourced or contracted. Everywhere,
both private and public management is subject to business principles: budgets, planning, salaries, and balance sheets
of costs and benefits. Using the ter- minology and logic of the market in defining professional relationships has its advantages,
 © U. Guérin / UNESCO. Sale of artefacts from aVietnamese wreck in Portsmouth, UK.
 © Australian National Maritime Museum. Part of the cargo of the Dunbar wreck, Sydney Heads, New South Wales, Australia.
Artefacts recovered from the wreck of the Dunbar in the early 1960s are now being analyzed
to add to our knowledge on international trade to New
South Wales in the 1850s.The Australian National Maritime Museum has been entrusted
with care of and research on
the collection of artefacts recovered from the Dunbar, thus ensuring that the transfer to an appropriate repository is in the best scientific and cultural interest.
34
General Principles