Capacity Building in Maritime Archaeology: The Case of the Eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Lebanon and Egypt)

6 Shipwreck archaeology in the past 10 years

“…A significant percentage of the field has devoted efforts toward the protection of underwater cultural heritage, as well as aligning the field with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Decade of the Ocean (Firth 2018; Henderson 2019; Trakadas, Firth and Gregory 2019). Over the last decade, organizations such as the Honor Frost Foundation have placed an emphasis on reaching policymakers, but also on on-the-ground capacity-building and awareness-raising (Blue and Breen 2019; Demesticha, Semaan and Morsy 2019). Projects such as Rising from the Depths seek to identify ways in which marine cultural heritage can benefit coastal communities in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Kenya by leading community-focused maritime initiatives, addressing the UN SDGs, and facing social challenges through maritime archaeology within the Global South (Henderson et al 2021; Holly et al 2022).…”

“…Contemporary philosophy is deeply entwined with the planet's climate crisis, which both maritime archaeological theory and policy have sought to address over the last decade (Wright 2016;Henderson 2019;Velentza 2023). Contemporary philosophy includes Indigenous and non-Western modes of thought (Morton 2013) and the past decade has seen important capacity-building and centring of Global South research in maritime archaeology, especially in addressing climate change and the economic impacts of maritime culture on communities (Blue and Breen 2019;Demesticha, Semaan and Morsy 2019;Henderson 2019;Henderson et al 2021;Holly et al 2022). This includes the capacity for the protection of underwater heritage from threats of looting and destruction (Recinos and Blue 2019;Nikolaus et al 2023).…”

Virtual Sea-Drifting Experiments between the Island of Cyprus and the Surrounding Mainland in the Early Prehistoric Eastern Mediterranean

“…A combination of physics-based models and computer simulation are employed towards modelling drift-induced seaborne movement, estimating a null model of non-directed potential maritime connectivity between Cyprus and its surrounding coastal areas. Such a model can certainly be used as a basis for developing more realistic models of seaborne mobility, corresponding, for example, to paddling-induced movement at sea towards selected destinations, and adds to the broader discussion of short haul seafaring patterns around Cyprus in antiquity [80].…”

Documenting, Protecting and Managing Endangered Maritime Cultural Heritage in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region

“…The second Strand B involves emergency reactive documentation. The threat level the maritime cultural resource is subject to has already been discussed, and the MarEA project is acutely aware of both the impact this is having on site stability and protection and the often limited local capacity that exists in some countries to be able to respond adequately to these impacts (Demesticha 2019 ). Thus, built into our practice is the ability to respond to particular circumstances or events and undertake emergency documentation using a variety of maritime archaeological methodologies and techniques.…”