Page 91 - Manual for Activities directed at the Underwater Cultural Heritage

without unnecessarily compromising sites that would otherwise remain available for future study. Hence a strong preference to target research excavation of sites threatened by development or otherwise.
It is also important to reflect on whether the re- search issues addressed are important and overarching enough to offset the loss of future research potential. Many sites have been ruined in the vain hope of finding definite proof of a possible historical identity. This was frequently done without proper consideration for other, more encompassing research questions for which the assemblage and deposit would in hindsight have provided a unique opportunity.
Background studies
Rule 15. The assessment shall also include back- ground studies of available historical and archaeological evidence, the archaeological and environmental characteristics of the site, and the consequences of any potential intrusion for the long-term stability of the underwater cultural heritage affected by the activities.
Background studies should address the historical and archaeological context of the period in which a site was constituted as well as the concerned region. In this regard, the international character of wreck- sites deserves specific attention, as the verifiable
 © National Archives of
the Netherlands, The Hague. Documentation on the Erfprins from the archives of the Dutch East Indian Company.
Historic background research will include research into the event that led to the site’s existence.This is particularly true for shipwreck sites dating to the post-medieval period. Such sites and the historic information on these sites testify to the mixing of cultures and populations that characterize
the Modern World as well as providing unique information on local history in many parts of the world.The archives of the English East India Company and Dutch East India Company or the state archives relating to the Estado do India and the Carrera das Indias in Portugal and Spain have therefore been inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World.
Historic background research does not just focus on the history of the event. Historical geography provides important information on the development of a specific area and the archaeological sites that it may contain.
The VOC archives in the Netherlands, South Africa, Indonesia and Sri Lanka comprise a total of 2,000 m of shelf for
the 200 years of its existence. Individual ships, such as the
Erfprins
– aVOC ship belonging to the Delft Chamber which was lost in 1758 – have their individual folders.
90
Preliminary work