2017 Session 6: History and Current Trends of Underwater Archaeology around East Asia

2017 Session 6: History and Current Trends of Underwater Archaeology around East Asia

East Asia is extremely rich in underwater cultural heritage, such as conventional shipwrecks under the sea, submerged settlement sites on the bottoms of inland lakes and rivers, or prehistoric shell mounds along coastal zones. For instance, the medieval or post-medieval aged wrecks and their cargos have recently been discovered one after another in the waters, or the underwater cultural heritage or seascape of stone tidal weir is a common cultural trait to the Ryukyu archipelago, western Japan, southern Korea, mainland China, and Formosa, which surround the East China Sea or a northern part of the Asian Mediterranean. No East Asian nation has ratified the UNESCO 2001 Convention, partly because it does not exactly correspond with oriental philosophy, it does not properly resolve the controversial issues upon sovereign immunity of warship wrecks, and so forth. Occasionally, the principle of preservation in situ in the convention has not been the first choice as Asian waters have poor water clarity generally.

Nevertheless, each country has already moved forward with its own underwater archaeological policies and projects both on governmental and grassroots levels. Some activities are in close cooperation with foreign institutions or universities. In East Asia, document-based historical study or terrestrial archaeology has a long tradition, which has had a noteworthy impact upon underwater archaeology and its methodology. Even in this region as well as in other Pacific areas, contrariwise, the technological advancement in underwater survey has remarkably been made recently; using remote-sensing with satellites, robotics for ROVs or AUVs, or 3D photogrammetry by computer software mitigates or cancels the limitations regarding accessibility and working time caused by underwater environment. The tie between such modern technologies and archaeology has minted new applications and perspectives of underwater cultural heritage study. The multi-disciplinary or holistic approaches are increasingly more and more necessary among Asian researchers.

Akifumi Iwabuchi
Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Japan

Kotaro Yamafune
APPARATUS, LLC, Japan