Underwater cultural heritage – problems and solutions (?)

Ownership of Underwater Cultural Heritage in the Area

This article addresses the ownership of Underwater Cultural Heritage (“UCH”) on the ocean floor outside of any nation’s jurisdiction (“the Area”), which was discussed, but not settled, in the two main international marine conventions: the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“1982 UNCLOS”) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (“UNESCO”) Conve...

Underwater reflectance transformation imaging: a technology for in situ underwater cultural heritage object-level recording

There is an increasing demand for high-resolution recording of in situ underwater cultural heritage. Reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) has a proven track record in terrestrial contexts for acquiring highresolution diagnostic data at small scales. The research presented here documents the first adaptation of RTI protocols to the subaquatic environment, with a scuba-deployable method desig...

Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Development

Cultural Heritage

Il Progetto Nu.M.E. (Nuovo Museo Elettronico della Storia della Città di Bologna), è iniziato nel 1997 dall’idea di poter creare un ambiente virtuale che permettesse di realizzare una ricostruzione tridimensionale dell’habitat urbano e delle sue trasformazioni storiche dai giorni nostri al 1200. È nata così la città in 4 dimensioni (tre dimensioni spaziali più una temporale) che permette ai vis...

PERVERSE SEA CHANGE: Underwater Cultural Heritage in the Ocean is Facing Chemical and Physical Changes

Is the loss of our Underwater Cultural Heritage accelerating? The term “underwater cultural heritage” (UCH) refers to all remnants of human activities lying on the seabed, on riverbeds, or at the bottom of lakes. It includes shipwrecks and artifacts lost at sea and extends to prehistoric sites, sunken towns, and ancient ports that were once on dry land but now are submerged due to manmade, clim...