Underwater Archaeology in Egypt and the Protection of its Underwater Cultural Heritage

After many years of individual attempts to explore the underwater cultural heritage (UCH) of Egypt, the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) established a department specializing in the field during the last decade of the twentieth century. The collaboration between this department and foreign missions led to the discoveries of a number of underwater sites and projects focusing on their protection, including mitigation work. This article presents the most important discoveries and displays the efforts of the SCA in the management of the UCH.     

广东水下考古的发展

广东省水下考古自1986年筹备开展以来,开展了“南海Ⅰ号”、西沙群岛、崖门内海沉船遗址以及其它一些小型水下考古遗址的勘探和发掘工作,建立了中国水下考古科研与培训基地,培养了一批年轻的水下考古工作者。广东省水下考古的发展和人才的培养,对推动全国水下考古事业的发展有举足轻重的作用。     

Regulating Scientific Diving and Underwater Archaeology: legal and historical considerations

The regulation of scientific and archaeological diving is complex but it is essential that underwater archaeologists are familiar with the requirements placed on them by legal systems. This paper outlines the history and development of current legal systems in four jurisdictions: the UK, USA, EU and Australia. This historical and legal approach informs key discussions facing maritime archaeologists; reference is made to training requirements, safety records and the question of who should be allowed to participate and who should be excluded from archaeological diving.     

Commercial Archaeology and 3D Web Technologies

ABSTRACT

This contribution summarizes the multiple uses of 3D web technologies in commercial archaeology. Considering the breadth of this topic, we will describe each different branch of these technologies with the example of case studies based on work of the Italian company Arc-Team. Our overview begins with 3D visualization for scientific purposes, showing a project funded by the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol (Italy) in order to improve knowledge about WWI. Second, we analyze a similar project, funded by the Autonomous Province of Trentino (Italy), but with the aim to increase tourism at a high alpine WWI site. The third example is the development of another prototype for tourism: a 3D web-map for the cultural valorization of the historical border (1753) between the region Tyrol and the Most Serene Republic of Venice. In the forth case study, we discuss the implementation of 3D within web platforms for archaeological project management of RAPTOR (Ricerca Archivi e Pratiche per la Tutela Operativa Regionale), a webGIS developed to aid in preservation and conservation efforts of cultural heritage for the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT). Fifth, we explore recent uses of 3D models for web-coworking during the process of excavation management, thanks to the developments of real-time 3D acquisition techniques based on SLAM algorithms and archeorobotic devices. Finally, 3D web-coworking is also analyzed illustrating some simple web tools that afford rapid feedback in data visualization, considering not only excavation field-work but also exploration projects. This overview, based on six different case studies, represents the four fields in which 3D web technologies are currently used in commercial archaeology: scientific communication; tourism improvement; preservation of cultural heritage; and real time field-work management. Some specific topics such as tourism improvement and field-work management are investigated in greater depth in order to allow us to analyze variables deriving from customer requests (e.g. restrictions regarding sensitive geolocation or preferences for specific web platforms) and from differences among data acquisition technologies based on various sensors.     

Maximising Skeletal Data Collection in Commercial Archaeology

This paper explores the application of quick, simple and low‐cost procedures for data collection in commercial‐driven ‘salvage’ archaeology. In large‐scale cemetery contexts, the collection of a meaningful data set is often under extreme time and cost constraints. This requires the application of tailored field techniques and interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists, anthropologists and developers in order to maximise results. The authors examine procedures recently utilised to document and preserve skeletal data in three post‐mediaeval cemeteries in Prague, and evaluate their efficacy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Between east and west: Archaeology in the new eastern Europe

The collapse of Communism in eastern Europe has led to significant changes in the research climate for archaeology. Traditional sources of funds have evaporated while others are becoming available. Personnel have changed and many institutions find themselves in a precarious position. Nonetheless, archaeological research has continued throughout the waning days of the People's Democracies and into the new era of market economies. This article surveys the state of archaeological research in eastern Europe between the Elbe and the Pripet Marshes and between the Baltic and the Adriatic during the late 1980s and early 1990s.     

Cultural Site Formation Processes in Maritime Archaeology: Disaster Response, Salvage and Muckelroy 30 Years on

Thirty years after Muckelroy's seminal 1976 paper on shipwreck site formation, research on the cultural processes which contribute to the creation and modification of shipwrecks remains limited. It is proposed that by adopting a process-oriented framework, we can integrate and synthesize the documentary, oral and archaeological evidence of human response to shipwreck into a structure which parallels the physical progress of the disaster. Possible cultural responses to shipwreck are considered, from pre-voyage planning through to post-impact salvage, including physical correlations potentially visible in the archaeological record.
© 2006 The Author     

Transdisciplinary Archaeology and the Future of Archaeological Practice: Citizen Science,Portable Science,Ethical Science

This paper presents a vision and a pathway for the future of archaeological practice, in which several fields that are currently considered distinct, including community-based collaborative archaeology, indigenous archaeology, and applied archaeology, could become the norm. Inspired by personal encounters with some exceptionally open and collaborative archaeology projects, as well as by recent advances in archaeological science, which are starting to make it more portable, this paper sets out an agenda for a more open approach to archaeological practice. It advocates a method of producing knowledge about the past that does not privilege one investigator over another, but gives everyone who is interested and wants to participate an opportunity to do. Specific methodological challenges that are discussed include the need to ‘flip’ the public outreach element of research designs, to embed open participation from the outset by nurturing relationships of mutual respect and trust, and to take advantage of, and improve, the portability of archaeological science, so that it can be done in and by local communities. It is argued here that the opening of archaeological research, including the archaeological sciences, to a wider range of participants, is the most ethical approach to archaeological practice in a pan-disciplinary research environment.     

刘东生院士与科技考古

2008年3月6日下午．刘东生院士仙逝的消息传来．深感悲痛。尽管深知生老病死的自然规律无法抗拒．然而仍久久不愿相信先生离我们而去的事实。确实．先生大智大慧、高瞻远瞩的大师风范,脚踏实地、精益求精的治学精神,淡泊名利、献身祖国的高尚品德．提携英才、甘为人梯的长者风度．科学登顶、誉满学界的光辉业绩,将永远留在我们心中。