UNDERWATER ARCHEOLOGY

MARES DEL SUR

Foundation

Explanation of how is developed the search, register and conservation of those objects that are witness from the past and for any reason they remain sunken:
In known by every one that the planet earth is composed in 75% by water (element vital for the survival of the species, matter widely treated in this web site under the title ¿Is the water a Vital element?) and until not many years the deep seas and lakes was unknown. The invention of the SCUBA opened a big door in order to know the secrets of the sea, generating great advances in this world exploration, that is submerge in our own planet.

Thank to this equipment is possible for example, to see the main room of the captain of the ship that was sunken many years ago and is laying under the ocean at great deep.

This is when we know were is the ship, but what equipment is needed to search in vast extensions of thousand of kilometers in the sea? To search archeological objects under water without having to dive great extensions we count all ready with technologies that has been developed specially in the last decades of the XX century.

In order to know what is laying underwater it is utilized an instrument called SONAR, which has the shape of a torpedo an produces an acoustic signal that travels to the bottom of the sea hitting everything that is between it and the SONAR. The signal returns to the sensor and the differences in deep shows the physical characteristics of the area under search creating a readable image.

In order to locate some objects of metal such as cannons and anchors, we count will what is called a MAGNETOMETER which captures their magnetic camp.In order to know the shape of the bottom of the sea it is used a ECOSONDA. This device transmit an acoustic signal that bounce from the bottom back to the instrument, and because of the time delay it is transformed into distance, an gave us the deep over which we are sailing. In this way a plott is created showing mountains and valleys at the bottom of the sea.

To mark interesting sites an be able to return back later it is used a GPS system, that functions with signals capture from various satellites that travel around the earth in the space.

To register the sunken objects there are drawing charts, photography and video devices, specially adapted to the water environment, in this way you can write, measure, draw, photograph and film underwater.

The biggest challenge is faced at the moment when the objects are brought up to the surface, because the change of environment always create deterioration, this is why to preserve this material is required to apply special procedures.

The conservation treatments consist on the elimination of the salts and the dry of the inorganic matter, such as rocks. In some occasions it is necessary to treat the objects with a chemical clean up. The wood for example is the most delicate because the transition from water to air can completely destroy the object.

The corrosion and the coral intrusions are the most evident of the transformations that the objects has been exposed to for being underwater.

It will be unthinkable during this times, for the broad majority of us, that some one told that he has an idea to unburied treasures in Giza Egypt or to excavate an Mayan or Inca ruin some place. Our first reaction will be, “this is protected and is not only a matter of willing and money”. Well, unfortunately this logic does not applied when you are talking about sunken treasures, and the popular conception is that this belongs to who ever wants or will adventure to found them.

Under water archeology has the same central interest of the ground archeology: THE STUDY OF THE HUMAN AND THEIR SOCIETIES THROUGH THE MATERIALS

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The antique objets that we found sunken, those known as archeological deposits, constitute the prints that ancient humans from the past left over. They are mute testimonies that now can tell us, who they were, how did they lived, which were their problems and how did they solve them, but above everything, what can we learn from them.

Is because of this, that part of the archeology is the search of this testimonies from the past, either to extract them from the place found, restoration and public exposure or only studying them at the place of founding (in situ).

The archeology is not the search of this curious and beautiful objets. In order to understand such objects is necessary to know about the time period of age, found data in ancient texts and in narration’s of adventures and government. It is also necessary to organize the research and above all to fight for the conservation of what we found under the seas and decide to bring to surface.

In the materials that the humans has left abandoned we can find represented their ways of knowing and seeing the world. For the underwater archeology a sunken ship is like a time capsule that preserves some times intact, a fragment of the history. But unfortunately one object that has been removed from his context, even because of his extraordinary beauty or value can not talk to us about his past if we does not have the information enough to know it and reconstruct his history.

Here we will introduce the term Underwater Cultural Heritage. All the objects that are a result of human activity has this denomination, which has a cultural relevance and remain laid in different underwater systems. Because of this it is equal in relevance a gold piece and a ore pod, because the real treasure is the opportunity to understand and learn about our past. Destroy, remove or steal this type of expressions is to tear apart and finish with our history, that tell us about the identity as a human group in front of others.

The Underwater Cultural Heritage belongs to a category that has to be studied, preserve and show to every one, and by no mean they are subject of commercialization. Every peace taken by the recreational divers as a “trophy” constitute a unique piece of a bigger puzzle for the comprehension of the history of our cultures. If we can not guarantee the proper conservation of each piece that is taken from his aquatic environment, only by the fact of exposing it to a different environment it will be destroyed for ever, and the information contained on it will be lost for ever.

The Underwater Cultural Heritage is a concept that only in the last decades has acquire relevance in the developed countries. It can be defined as the group of structures, objects and knowledge built by the humanity, during centuries, in their relation with our seas.

This type of specific patrimony, regardless of it value and complexity is still not known an recognize in our country, fact that present the biggest threaten over them, An we have to add to this the destruction of ancient legacy destroyed by the economic development, the treasure hunters, the deficiencies in the laws.

In our country the first approach to their legal protection belongs to the decree N° 311 dated October 8, 1999, that under the law N°! 17.288 of the national monuments protects all the wrecks and archeological deposits underwater that have been for more than 50 years underwater.