Participants

Participants and summaries of presentations

List of Participants & Abstracts of communications

(in alphabetical order)

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A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Martine Acerra, Université de Nantes (France)

Jon Adams, Université de Southampton (Grande-Bretagne)

Training for Maritime Archaeology : the Nautical Archaelogy Society scheme 1985-2009 and the University of Southampton MSc course

In the UK there has been a long tradition stretching back over 100 years whereby much archaeology on land was carried out by amateur or rather ‘avocational’ workers. This was also the main work force for the Mary Rose Trust diving team that carried out the Mary Rose excavations between 1979 and 1982, taught and supervised by a team of diving archaeologists and their full time assistants. This approach gave rise to an increasingly formalised training routine adopted by the archaeologists many of whom helped to develop the Nautical Archaeology Society Training Scheme that started in 1985 and has run courses internationally since 1987. To date over 10,000 course units have been taught in the UK alone whilst international courses have been run in over 30 different countries. The NAS scheme has a modular approach and is flexible enough to cope with regional adjustments and will give brief details of the NAS scheme. Those interested in becoming involved and possibly even teaching the NAS scheme are invited to view the website at www.nauticalarchaeologysociety.org or get in touch with the NAS at nas@nauticalarchaeologysociety.org We will also outline how the NAS scheme has been used to provide the practical element of the training used by post-graduate students of Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton. This demonstrates how the scheme is adaptable enough to be used for both amateur and professional training for maritime / underwater archaeology.

Pascal Arnaud, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis / Institut universitaire de France (France)

Underwater archaeological contributions to research in ancient maritime history : current limits and future stakes

This paper will try to account for the contributions underwater archaeology has brought to ancient maritime history, which have been considerable, and have greatly changed our vision of ancient sailing. At present, it is a sorting out of information essentially, but not exclusively, coming from the sinking conditions, and the preservation conditions of each particular source.The major issues, including where the ship was coming from, where it was going, where it had been loaded, where it went off course and/or was abandoned by the crew, are most often left unanswered. The data gathered do not always give a clear picture, nor do those accessible through publications. In function to the data sought by the maritime historian, we will focus on the issue of wreck representativeness, as well as the crucial issue of archaeological information and the creation of databases.

Marc-André Bernier, Parcs Canada (Canada)

Canadian legislation on shipwrecks: towards a new law inspired by the UNESCO convention

Wrecks in Canadian waters are under at least two legislative standards. The Canada Shipping Act, which applies to all wrecks in navigable waters, does not forward the protection of wrecks, quite on the contrary. Made to protect the rights of proprietors from sunken ships, as well as the claims of rescuers, as the years passed it imposed the non-archaeological removal of wrecks. The provincial legislative frameworks on wrecks give a whole range of types of protection. In 2001, the Canada Shipping Act was amended to protect wrecks considered as heritage and its regulations are directly inspired by the new UNESCO Convention on the protection of underwater cultural heritage. The recent developments of this regulation will be presented at the end, as well as the implementing strategy of a national programme for heritage wrecks under the responsibility of Parks Canada.

The end of a major archaeological project : publication of the Red Bay excavation

While the field work of a major archaeological project demands considerable effort and resources, analysis of the data proves to be just as demanding, but without the advantage of the enthusiasm brought on by the excavation. The effort of publishing a synthesis of the work is even more treacherous and suffers invariably of the exhaustion distinctive of long projects. The underwater archaeological project of Red Bay was no exception. The excavation done by Parks Canada took place over a period of six years; however, the final publication of the results came out almost twenty-five years later. This presentation will give an overview of the management of this bilingual report, as well as a discussion on the pitfalls met with and the strategies used to secure the completion of a project of a generation of archaeologists.

Jim Bruseth, Texas Historical Commission (Etats-Unis)

The Example of La Belle : When an Underwater Project Becomes a Terrestrial Excavation

In 1686 the French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle lost his last vessel, La Belle, during an ill-fated attempt to establish a colony along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, today’s Texas. In 1995 the Texas Historical Commission (THC) located the wreck and excavated it during 1996 and 1997. The excavation took place within a steel cofferdam, which allowed the shipwreck to be dewatered and become a terrestrial excavation. More than one million artifacts were recovered, including the bottom 40 percent of the hull. The cofferdam allowed the public to visit the excavation site, and more than 25,000 visitors travelled by boat to visit La Belle. The excavation has been one of the largest archaeological projects undertaken in Texas. The artefact conservation phase of the project is still ongoing, 12 years after the completion of the excavation. Museum exhibits based on the project are on display at several locations in Texas to highlight the state’s French heritage. This paper summarizes the excavation of the shipwreck, conservation of the recovered artefacts, efforts to raise funds for all aspect of the work, and plans for promoting this unique part of Texas heritage.

Christophe Cérino, Université de Bretagne-Sud (France)

Underwater imagery, heritage & heritage mediation : an original contribution to the heritage process of contemporary metal wrecks

Despite the increasing number of audiovisual reports on the undersea area, today the underwater representation of coastal zones remains a difficult task for most of these places. Confronted with these representation and appropriation problems of immerged contemporary heritage, since 1999, the Musée sous-marin du Pays de Lorient has proposed cultural mediation through images. By being equipped with a tour area in the old submarine base of Keroman, the only constituted, conserved, and exhibited collections of which are photographs, submarine films, and audiovisual reports on the maritime memory of South Brittany, it proposes an original contribution to the heritage process of contemporary metal wrecks. This paper, after having evoked the problems and issues of this particular type of heritage, will present a primary report of the methods and results obtained in the last decade.

Franca Cibecchini, Ministère de la Culture, DRASSM (Italie / France)

Underwater archaeology in Italy and Spain, thirty years after Nino Lamboglia

In the 1950s, underwater archaeology began in the western Mediterranean due to the clear-sightedness of two archaeologists in particular: Fernand Benoit and Nino Lambolgia. The tireless scientific activity of the latter deeply marked the first decades of the discipline in Italy, France, and Spain. Thanks to Professor Lamboglia, Italy played a leading scientific role until the 1960s. The three countries seemed to advance more or less together in this discipline, carrying out projects together and giving the state of their research during the International Congress on Underwater Archaeology, successively organised in each country. However, 30 years after the death of Lamboglia, things have greatly changed. The management of underwater archaeological heritage in the three countries show notable differences, differentiating France from Italy and from Spain. We want to outline what have become of the main strands of heritage that Nino Lamboglia has left behind in Italy and Spain. The current organisations of the two countries will also be looked at and we will try to show how they are different from that of France.

Sylvain Coindet, Université de Bretagne-Sud (France)

Françoise Dalex, Musée du Quai Branly (France)

Alain Decaux, Ministère de la Culture, DRAC de Bretagne (France)

Denis Degez, Ministère de la Culture, DRASSM (France)

Stéphane Deschamps, DRAC de Bretagne (France)

Christopher Dobbs, Mary-Rose Trust (Grande-Bretagne)

Finance and the Mary Rose Project: A Case Study

The cost of the Mary Rose project between 1979 and 1982 is recorded as being £2.8 million. However this figure does not include the considerable amount of sponsorship ‘in kind’ that was received by the project team during those early years. This paper will look at the income sources used to finance the project and will contrast the work of the early days with more recent excavations carried out between 2003 and 2005. These were funded by a completely separate method along the principle of ‘The developer pays’ as there was a plan by the UK’s Ministry of Defence to dredge a new shipping lane close to the Mary Rose site that would have threatened further archaeological remains. The paper will also include Mr Dobbs’ warnings and views on how large archaeological projects may wish to structure their funding in the future. If time allows, the presentation will finish with a look at the plans for the new Mary Rose Museum (due for completion in 2012) and give an outline of how the collection will be presented and how it is being financed.

Pierre Drap, CNRS (France)

Deep-sea wrecks, an underwater archaeological issue

For over twenty years, experiments on deep-sea wrecks, undertaken by DRASSM in the French Mediterranean, with the logistical support of various organizations (notably IFREMER, COMEX, SETP, CNRS, and the European Commission), have helped develop the study and exploitation methods of these sources that generally escape detection during scuba diving. Using computer tools and automating read outs have, in this case, permitted us to use all sorts of computer tools (virtual reality and GIS) to visualize and interact with the data.

René Estienne, Service Historique de la Défense (France)

Your papers, please ! Fortunes and misfortunes of documentary sources of underwater archaeology

The underwater archaeology milieu represents a limited but particularly remarkable public who use archival service resources. This conference is thus the occasion to present, from an archivist’s point of view, the particularities of this public and the assets of written sources to the documentation of underwater remains likely to become heritage. From the identification or post-identification of a wreck to the reconstitution of events through the interpretation of naval archaeological remains or through the contextualisation of the multiple objects recovered, through the desire to valorise men and actors of the past, these and a large variety of other investigations are open to researchers. These branches classically include the integration of analysis assets, additional information by the comparison of sources of material remains, the modification of syntheses and preconceived ideas, but especially the research steps that become even more specific with their historicisation, or their commented display. The latter is one of the imposed figures of the mediatisation of operations, essential to gather the large sums needed to carry them out and one of the major characteristics of their processing. From examples taken from thirty years of professional experience at the Service historique de la Marine in Lorient, and now the Service historique de la Défense, a typology of these steps will be developed, as well as documentary sources and tools likely to satisfy them.

Dominique Frère, Université de Bretagne-Sud (France)

Ab Hoving, Rijkmuseum d'Amsterdam (Pays-Bas)

Dutch shipbuilding in the XVII^th century : sources, method of resarch,construction of ships

Our interest in the matter is of course excited by looking at the beautiful paintings the artists of the Dutch Golden Age have left us. Also the rare ship models from that period that survived the time can tell us something about the way the beautiful vessels of those days were built. More and more archaeology brings us remains (sometimes remarkably complete) of the ships of the period. But most of all it is literature that teaches us about the ways ships were constructed in the period. Our oldest book on the subject (1671) was written by an Amsterdam lord mayor, Nicolaes Witsen. He describes a specific ship as an example in his further chaotic and unreadable book. I built a model of that ship using his texts and re-edited the book. Thus model building can be a complementary method of research and can serve as a help, interpreting a source. Archaeology can benefit from this project, as the project is much benefited by archaeology, which delivers a growing flood of data to be explained. His sort of research should of course be done with our brains, but not without the help of our hands.

Laurent Hugo, Musée Dobrée (France)

Olivia Hulot, Ministère de la Culture, DRASSM (France)

French Underwater Archaeology: Review of 30 Years of Evolution in the Discipline

From the first professional excavations of the late 1970s to present day, underwater archaeology has undergone a great deal of evolution. Thus, each new decade of excavations saw the birth of new know-how, of new advances… from the human point of view, as well as from the technical, scientific, and conservation-restoration material points of view. From the Mediterranean basin to the western banks, as discoveries were made, the problematics and the methodologies progressively evolved. After scientific interest being exclusively focused on Antiquity at the beginning of the 1980s, the medieval and modern periods progressively became essential as well. Today, after having been completely neglected for a long time, contemporary wrecks are becoming the objects of scientific and historical studies. Beyond these evolutions, the underwater archaeology of this third millennium will be confronted with new challenges: deep-water wrecks, foreshore wrecks, conservation of metallic wrecks, coastal development…

Marie-Pierre Jezegou, Ministère de la Culture, DRASSM (France)

The project of a maritime cultural heritage atlas in the Hérault region: a tool of mutualisation and knowledge

The goal of the project is to create a crucial report of the documentation gathered over 60 years of underwater archaeological research in this French départment. It has been conceived in the form of an atlas to enable the distribution of maps and old drawings, synthesis maps, as well as a bank of images that will complete the textual database (site notices, bibliographies, etc.). With the development of information networks, production forms and knowledge transmission are more and more dependant on their distribution power and speed. The role of multimedia tools (interactive terminals, CD Rom, virtual exhibitions) and Geographic Information Systems have become preponderant. This atlas has several levels of information and is destined to a heterogeneous public: general public, school groups, students, heritage valorisation and cultural tourism actors, researchers… In fact, it could also contribute to the elaboration of a prospective approach in terms of the protection of underwater heritage.

Gérard Le Bouëdec, Université de Bretagne-Sud (France)

Current state of research in maritime history and how it is linked to underwater archaeology

We have often regretted, during the meetings of the SIG of Maritime History, the lack of representation of researchers of Ancient History, as well as the lack of contact with our colleagues in underwater archaeology and museums. As a follow up to the colloquium organised in Lorient in November 2007, the SIG will soon publish a state of the art of French and international research, in the Revue d’Histoire maritime. Having taken part in the major international scientific events, and notably the IMEHA conference held in London, in June 2008, today we have the necessary perspective to establish links between conclusions of research in history and those in underwater archaeology. Pascal Arnaud will discuss the contributions that underwater archaeology brings to research in Ancient maritime history. My paper deals with the period from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century. French maritime history has particularly distinguished itself by its pioneering work on people of the sea and littoral society, on foreshore fishing and small-scale fishing, on small ports and coastal shipping. Contemporary history can also be found in the dynamics of French research in naval history, but to a lesser degree than the Modern era. Even though trade and shipping is an important research subject in the English-speaking world, the period of French research on large ports and expansive commerce of the Modern era seems to have passed. More globally, the confrontation of French research with international publications shows major gaps in Contemporary history. My knowledge, as wanting as it may be, of underwater research makes me prudent. Nonetheless, it seems that its major contributions cans be seen in trade and shipping, as well as through major commerce, the guerre de course and squadron wars, with proclivity to privilege the Age of Sail. The divergence is obvious between underwater research that enhances historical research which was dominating until the late 1980s, and a fruitful historical research that today gives a new place to small ports, small-scale fishing and coastal shipping, as well as the actors of littoral societies. This primary analysis, free of judgement, is a preliminary to an exchange of ideas, as the main point remains scientific debate. Indeed, it is of a nature to renew and expand the issues. Thus, during the conference held at Université de Bretagne-Sud at the end of 2008, Pascal Arnaud forced us to investigate the stowing and conditioning of merchandise in the slipways, information which archives provide, but which we have not sufficiently exploited. At a time when the maritime field is flooded by researchers of all disciplines, the scientific community of littoral and maritime historians, as well as underwater archaeologists, must be able to show that their synergy is enriching and fruitful for the future.

Jean-Michel Le Boulanger, Université de Bretagne-Sud (France)

Alain Le Gouguec, France-Inter (France)

Christian Lemée, Université de Roskilde (Danemark)

Investigation of large-size 16th and 17th century wrecks in an urban environment

Archaeological remains of eight ships and boats (called the B&W-shipwrecks) were discovered in the former harbor of Grønnegaard in Copenhagen and excavated in 1996 and 1997. Of the eight excavated wrecks, six were dated to have been built between 1585 and 1640, and five were the remains of large carvel-built vessels, thus representing a unique collection of different Renaissance ship-types that have been sailing in Danish waters. As the discovery of the ship came as a total surprise for the archaeologists, a specific approach had to be taken to perform the excavation in a short time frame. The State Antiquary decided that the ships were not to be preserved (it was in the prime of the “In-Situ Preservation” approach). Therefore it was necessary to perform an archaeological rescue excavation, where the main concept was: “Preservation by Record”. Several of the B&W shipwrecks were of a size and complexity that made it necessary to use a fast and effective method of excavation and documentation, as the new building construction on the site could not be stopped for very long. The vessels were therefore excavated using a combination of machine and hand work. The different layers of the carvel-built ships, consisting of inner floor planking and beams, ceiling, outer planking, doubling and sheathing were uncovered and surveyed in sequences. To speed up the survey process, a total station was used to measure all the different structural components of the ships. The extensive use of total station as a survey instrument is the main methodological innovation characterizing the B&W excavations. Though the method is not new, a new concept was developed and implemented and subsequently used for the filed recording. The aim of developing a new concept was to allow a post-excavation study of the preserved wrecks, as they were all to be destroyed. For 4 of the wrecks, a section of the hulls were lifted out and documented, in order to provide information about construction details that could not be examined during the intensive field work. The extensive documentation material was exploited in a PhD study of the shipbuilding methods of the 16th and 17th century shipbuilding within North Western Europe. The B&W shipwrecks showed to be important elements in the knowledge of shipbuilding practices in the late Renaissance. The archaeological methods and the results of the study of the shipwrecks will be presented at the conference.

Frédéric Leroy, Ministère de la Culture, DRASSM (France)

Michel l’Hour, Ministère de la Culture, DRASSM (France)

French underwater heritage. Laws and duties

The way France sees shipwrecks has twice evolved over the centuries. The evolution has taken place, on the one hand, in the understanding of property, and on the other, in the interest given to them. Initially this interest was of an economic nature, but later became cultural and archaeological. French legislation on maritime wreck policy, which is one of the oldest and most entangled in the world, faithfully mirrors the history of this mutation. Being particularly based on Roman law, the French State first succeeded as early as the 18th century in imposing a legal system for wrecks protecting first of all private interests, and if none could be found, the interest of the State. In the late 20th century, the legislation then, and for first time, recognized the existence of wrecks of archaeological, historic, or artistic character… it later imposed the wide-spread concept of maritime cultural heritage. This legal framework is what made France, in 1966, the first country in the world to develop a structure for the protection, enhancement, and study of sunken heritage. The DRASSM, the French department for underwater and undersea archaeological research, remains still today one of the very rare official services of this nature in the world.

History at the sea, thoughts on the presentation of underwater archaeology

Conceived in 2001, inaugurated in 2005, and presented until 2009, in eight different successive museological places along the French Atlantic coast, History from the Sea is an unprecedented exhibition and synthesis on French underwater archaeology along the Atlantic and English Channel coasts. It has made it possible to compare archaeological data collected from nearly one hundred underwater archaeological sites and to create a rich database of 3200 objects which proves to be a remarkable instrument of management and analysis of maritime cultural heritage of the French Atlantic coast. The 600 objects which were selected for the exhibition are presented in scenography based on the transparency of glass, liquid ambiances and chiaroscuro. Functional groups and reconstitution of living spaces on board are favoured so as to present the objects in their historical reality and as the underwater archaeologists discovered them. Initially the risks with this exhibit were high due to the proposed itinerary over four years, of seven departments, and eight exhibition places, thus requiring the manipulation of the archaeological objects and scenographic sets sixteen different times. In this presentation, we will try to highlight the objective, technical means, and difficulties of this exhibition which is quite out of the ordinary, owing as much to the size of the arrangements, as to the nature of the objects presented.

Sylviane Llinares, Université de Bretagne-Sud (France)

Luc Long, Ministère de la Culture, DRASSM (France)

Deep-sea wrecks, an underwater archaeological issue

Paul Mardikan, Clemson University Conservation Center, Warren Lasch Conservation Laboratory (Etats-Unis)

The last voyage of the submarine H.L. Hunley (1864)

In February 1864, during one of the most daring missions of the American Civil War, the crew of the hand-powered submarine H.L. Hunley made history by becoming the first submariners to sink an enemy warship in battle. The weapon’s system, a black powder charge attached to a 5-meter long spar at its bow, sent the USS Housatonic to the bottom of the ocean in less than five minutes. Not until World War I was this feat repeated, when a German submarine sank the HMS Pathfinder. Following the attack, however, the H.L. Hunley disappeared with all hands on board. After decades of searching, the buried submarine was finally located in 1995 some 4 miles off the coast of Charleston in South Carolina. Federal and State authorities elected to recover the submarine and its crew and to spear-head this effort brought in Dr Robert Neyland of the Naval Historical Center and a team of international experts, who set about developing plans for its recovery, excavation, and conservation. The initial goals of the project were clear, raise the submarine intact, and ensure the completion of an adequately equipped conservation facility to house the H.L. Hunley. In August 2000 the submarine was successfully recovered and placed under an impressed current protection in a custom-made conservation tank containing refrigerated city water at the Warren Lasch Conservation Laboratory. The subsequent excavation and analysis of its interior spanned several years and highlighted the critical importance of a collaborative effort between archaeologists, conservators and forensic pathologists. The main challenges of the project were rooted in the unusual nature of the site, the submarine’s extreme physical vulnerability, and the presence of human remains within its interior. This presentation intends to address how the team navigated the many inherent constraints, whether technical or financial, to achieve the projects scientific goals.

Jean-Bernard Memet, Laboratoire A-CORROS (France)

Conserving underwater heritage : current treatments and alternatives

With underwater archaeology evolving toward deep water, metallic wrecks, either ship or plane, and with the accelerating discovery of underwater cultural heritage, conservation and restoration have become great vehicles for the protection, valorization and transmission towards future generation of this underwater heritage. The old days are over, when artifacts were excavated before their conservation was planned, and the work of each specialty was done within its own boundaries. Today archaeology, conservation and museums are deeply linked, and many opportunities, either physical or virtual are given from the curious to the specialist to experience underwater archaeology. In situ underwater wreck preservation today is getting more and more crucial, because it is linked either (on the incursion of men underwater), and also on sustainability due to the potential pollution from second world war shipwrecks. This presentation will describe how conservation is evolving from a laboratory based science to an in situ action in order to enhance and valorized our cultural heritage.

Stéphane Millière, Gédéon Programme (France)

Underwater archaeology and audiovisual communication

The media love spectacular subjects that are easy to explain. How can one combine the complexity of the scientific approach, historical and cultural elements in relation to excavated remains and the desire to oversimplify of the televisions broadcasters? What role can scientists play in an audiovisual production, and what type of control can they have on it? (type of contract and audiovisual rights) How can the material be best optimised for the different media used (internet, news, documentary films) and for documentary archives? The audiovisual production company Gédéon Programmes for many years now have put a lot of effort towards the discipline of archaeology and scientific documentaries. This experience enables us to propose ideas on the difficulties and issues of audiovisual communication for the subject of archaeology, and more particularly underwater archaeology.

Paul-Henri Nargeollet, Center for maritime and Underwater Ressource Management (Etats-Unis)

Research and Intervention of deep-sea wrecks

This paper will discuss all of the techniques used for deep-sea research at present. From the use of lateral sonars, multibeam sounders, and sediment echo-sounders on board a surface vessel, to the use of AUVs (Autonomous underwater vehicle) and underwater robots, technological progress allows one to cover an extensive area of research and to give exact positioning thanks to inertial measurement units. The techniques of videogrammetry and photogrammetry will also be discussed, as well as clearance tools, such as the detrenching tool, and gripping techniques for movable furnishings.

Alexandre Poudret-Barré, ADRAMAR - Université de Montréal (France / Canada)

Foreshore wrecks

Familiar with diving and the underwater environment, the archaeologist who is also a specialist of old ships cannot deny the particular case of a ship found on land. Unknown in the Levant, in fact the phenomenon of tides created a very peculiar type of heritage in the west: foreshore wrecks. Carried out between water and land, the analyses of the wrecks suffer from the several inconveniences of both the marine and terrestrial environments. Despite this real difficulty, the few architectural studies which have been done have broken new ground in a field in which underwater archaeology has stayed extremely discrete, that of small-tonne vessels used for coastal shipping or fishing. The systematic identification of wrecks on the sand borders, dating them through dendrochronology, and methodologically studying them should all contribute, within the next few years, to better understanding certain types of maritime transportation of the English Channel, the Atlantic, and the North Sea, which have remained little known until now.

Pierrick Pourchasse, Université de Bretagne Occidentale (France)

Christian Pfister, Université du Littoral (France)

Eric Rieth, Université de Paris I-CNRS (France)

Training in France

Forty-three years after the creation of the DRASM in 1966, and twenty-nine years after the creation of the CNRAS in 1980, two institutions of the French Ministry of Culture were united in 1996 to create the DRASSM. However, answers to the issues of undersea and underwater archaeological training still remain complex and unsatisfactory. First, a series of definitions to settle (or at least try to) the notions covered by the often very different contents will be presented. The definitions of undersea archaeology, underwater archaeology, maritime archaeology, nautical archaeology, theoretical training, practical training, initiation… will then be discussed. Secondly, the relationships between the different actors of research – in the vast meaning of the term – in archaeology of maritime and river environments will be put forward on the one hand, and on the other the problems of training and/or investigation initiation in France. The conclusion will give the open question of adequacy or inadequacy of archaeological training in maritime and river environments.

Thomas Sagory, Ministère de la Culture (France)

Presentation of the electronic collection “Grands sites archéologiques”

The next publication of the electronic collection “Grands sites archéologiques” is currently in preparation with the DRASSM team. It will present the two privateering frigates of the Natière site. As for all the sites of the collection, the objective is to valorise the archaeological research on the internet using the multimedia tools at our disposition to show the general public the research results. This presentation is the occasion to put forward some case studies which illustrate the possibilities of internet publication. This collection is produced by the research and technology mission of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. It currently includes 17 sections on very different time periods and sites: Saint-Denis in medieval times, Antiquity Paris, Lascaux, Lattes, underwater archaeology, and many others.

Damien Sanders, ADRAMAR (France)

Tullio Scovazzi, Université de Milan (Italie)

The international regime for the protection of the underwater cultural heritage

The greatest exhibition of human civilization lies on the seabed. According to some evaluations, in the past centuries almost 5% of all seagoing ships were lost every year, be it for acts of God, human errors or naval battles. Today the capacity of some States and private entities to use very sophisticated technological means to explore the seabed at increasing depths not only allows access to a huge historical and cultural heritage, but also entails the risk of such heritage being looted or used for private commercial gain under a first-come-first-served approach. Two radically different models are followed in national legislation on underwater cultural heritage, based on the priority given to, respectively, public or private interests. The fact remains that the body of “the law of salvage and other rules of admiralty” is today typical of a few common law systems, but is a complete stranger to the legislation of the majority of other countries.

Lars U. Scholl, Musée maritime de Bremerhaven (Allemagne)

The Bremen Cog

In 1962 the wreck of a late-fourteenth-century cog was discovered near Bremen, Germany. After the salvage of this ultimate example of the Hanseatic trading fleet, other cogs were found and identified, and several replicas were built. The vessel was dismantled in the river and kept wet in tanks. When the German Maritime Museum was founded in 1971 the cog was given to the museum. In a long process the cog was put together again from more than 2000 pieces. The conservation was to take nineteen years. The vessel was put into an enormous steel tank where the waterlogged cog was converted into a dry vessel. In May 2000 the cog was formally presented to the world. Unfortunately the wood was softer than expected which resulted in the so called sagging of the hull. Now the cog is back in its original shape and a steel corset will eventually allow us to show the vessel which will make any support form outside unnecessary.

Hélène Tromparent de Seynes, Musée de la Marine (France)

Underwater archaeological heritage: what are the implications for maritime museums?

Underwater archaeological artifacts offer an indisputable enriching factor for maritime museums. Thanks to these artifacts, new perspectives of presentations are conceivable, and maritime cultural aspects that are rarely present in museums, such as everyday life on board, can now be shown to the general public. Archaeology can also let one give history a strong emotional dimension (through, for example, the sinking of the Lapérouse, or the history of the Titanic…) and arouse the interest of the general public. But how can one reconcile the management constraints of collections of history museums and the reception of often large, fragile, and sometimes unattractive artifacts that require particular specificities of conservation and presentation? Through the case of the Musée national de la Marine, the constraints and main advantages of the reception of this type of collection in a museum will be presented.

Philippe Vergain, Ministère de la Culture (France)

Elisabeth Veyrat, Ministère de la Culture, DRASSM (France)

Archaeological excavation of the wrecks at the Natière site in Saint-Malo

Discovered by spearfishers, the Natière wrecks had become, from 1999 to 2008, a project of scientific investigation which little by little turned into the biggest French underwater archaeological site of the last ten years. Located at the entrance of the port of Saint-Malo, from 8 to 18 meters deep depending on tide, the Natière site consists of two large wrecks aligned parallel in a sand plain. The Natière 1 wreck was identified as the remains of the 300-tonne privateering frigate La Dauphine built in Le Havre in 1703, entrusted to a privateer captain, and lost on December 11, 1704 as she was coming back from an Atlantic campaign. The Natière 2 wreck was identified as the remains of the 390-tonne frigate L’Aimable Grenot, built in Granville in 1747, fitted-out for privateering until 1748, and then allotted to commerce in Spain. She was lost May 6, 1749 as she was casting off for Cadix. The Natière wrecks both had an oak skeleton conserved, on the starboard side, from the keel to the deck holding the artillery, as well as an archaeological collection of over 3000 objects. A global study of the site made it easier to grasp the methods and techniques of naval construction, manoeuvring, spatial organisation and everyday life of the sailors on board the two French frigates of the early 18th century. The technical, financial and human data of the investigation will also be discussed, as well as enhancement for the general public.

History at the sea, thoughts on the presentation of underwater archaeology