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Sustainable preservation of underwater archaeological sites: A novel approach to cultural heritage management

Project description

Finding new ways to manage underwater cultural heritage

Current management practices used to preserve underwater cultural heritage (UCH) may not be optimal because we do not fully understand the threats posed by natural and anthropogenic drivers. The EU-funded ENDURE project aims to address the decay processes, determine their impact on UCH and recommend a new conceptual framework to preserve this heritage based on site entropy. It will utilise marine sensing techniques to examine the decay of shipwrecks and other submerged archaeological sites; identify natural processes and rates of decay; remotely identify and rank simultaneous decay processes; and propose novel methods to reduce threats. ENDURE’s work will benefit stakeholders, marine practitioners and, ultimately, future generations.

Objective

Cultural heritage is the legacy of tangible, intangible and natural heritage assets of a society that is inherited from past generations. Preserving the remains of the past for the benefit of future generations is common in international heritage policy. Current management practice advocates preserving underwater cultural heritage (UCH) where it lies on the seabed, in situ. However, this practice is questioned due to a lack of understanding of the entangled threats posed by multiple natural and anthropogenic drivers. In a rapidly changing ocean environment and increasing human exploitation of the marine environment, it is necessary to develop new concepts for assessing and preserving this resource. With over 3,000,000 shipwrecks and thousands of submerged prehistoric sites lying on the floors of the worlds oceans, ENDURE aims to disentangle both natural and anthropogenic decay processes, determine their cumulative and interactive effects on UCH and proposes a novel conceptual framework to preserve this heritage based on site entropy. This will be achieved by: 1) Detect, visualise and interpret the products of natural and anthropogenic decay of shipwrecks and submerged prehistoric sites using marine remote sensing techniques integrated with natural and anthropogenic variables in a GIS platform; 2) Determine key natural processes and rates of decay of archaeological materials in situ and in the laboratory; 3) Remotely identify and rank simultaneous decay processes, including increasing threats to hidden and largely inaccessible heritage sites using ecosystem modelling, and 4) Propose novel intervention methods to mitigate threats to UCH and where not possible, strategies for curated decay. Ultimately, ENDUREs holistic structured framework can be synergistically integrated and implemented by stakeholders and marine practitioners for a sustainable preservation of the marine environment and the worlds underwater cultural legacy for future generations.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2021-ADG

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Host institution

NATIONALMUSEET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 496 306,00
Address
FREDERIKSHOLMS KANAL 12
1220 Kobenhavn
Denmark

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Region
Danmark Hovedstaden Byen København
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 496 306,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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