TRANSNATIONAL HERITAGE: BUILDING BRIDGES FOR THE FUTURE (original) (raw)
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The maritime paradox: does international heritage exist?
"This paper tries to address the paradoxical situation that arguments to protect maritime heritage invariably include international significance, whereas it is seemingly impossible to put flesh on that international dimension. The issue is discussed in the light of four discourses or themes. Firstly the international characteristics of the archaeological discipline are discussed in the context of national practice and regulation. Secondly maritime heritage and its importance for overarching themes in human history are juxtaposed to World Heritage nominations and their role in present-day society. Thirdly the development of standard setting instruments at UNESCO and the Council of Europe is discussed from the perspective of a wider international project. The last theme focuses on a discussion on ‘ownership’ in an international perspective. Although international heritage is an attractive proposition that is crucial to the emancipation of maritime heritage, the inevitable conclusion is that it does not presently exist. Its theoretical existence is not accepted in practice. In discussing ways of improving the future management of maritime heritage in international waters it is argued that much depends on the inclusive interpretation of the concept of ‘a verifiable link’ according to the 2001 UNESCO Convention. The Convention builds on sharing of responsibilities. Exclusiveness will stand in the way of any improvement, as it has done in the past. Nevertheless, it would be natural that the coastal state will coordinate efforts in the coastal maritime zones. Other options are legally possible but not attractive from a heritage perspective. The coastal state, however, should act on behalf of international stakeholders and will only do so if it accepts that international heritage exists. This acceptance that international heritage exists is even more vital and inevitable for protection, cherishing and good use of heritage in the area beyond any national jurisdiction."
Coastal and maritime cultural heritage: from the European Union to East Asia and Latin America
MAST. Maritime studies/Maritime studies, 2024
x relationships. Indeed, coastal residents' and ocean-going peoples' relationships with one another and their coasts and seas form community and individual identities, and in so doing, further generate living coastal and maritime cultural heritage. We define coastal and maritime cultural heritage (CH) as the material and immaterial cultural attributes of coastal or maritime-connected groups which have been inherited from previous generations. A key point to be made about CH is that it has persisted over time. Such endurance indicates an implicit value placed on it by cultural members and may show special, localized aesthetic values. Critically, the heritage connects cultural community members to one another and their local environments and provides a sense of identity. Intangible culture is often difficult to comprehend but it generally includes, for example, knowledge and skills such as with building boats, processes involved in sewing distinct clothes, singing songs, and relating stories. Cultural Heritage is a concept which offers a bridge between the past and
European Journal of Post-classical Archaeologies, 2020
This paper reflects on a number of key pressing issues that maritime cultural heritage protection is facing in a world where all political agendas are looking into achieving sustainable development and growth within their economic, social and environmental domains. The urgent initial steps and actions the cultural heritage community need to take in order to align the development of maritime archaeology with the sustainable development priorities in the global sphere are identified here. The reflections below argue that eventually no development will be sustainable if maritime cultural heritage is not taken into account and the practice of maritime archaeology does not act as the connector between other marine sciences, society and policy makers.
Aquatic Conservation-marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 2017
1. The 1972 World Heritage Convention has not to date been applied to marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), i.e. to high seas and deep sea bed sites. 2. Examples are given of high seas and deep seabed sites that appear to meet the criteria of Outstanding Universal Value for inscription. 3. The ongoing negotiations at the United Nations for a new International Legally Binding Instrument (ILBI) on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of biodiversity in ABNJ are highlighted as a significant complementary initiative. 4. Three feasible modalities are suggested by which the Parties to the 1972 Convention might be able to allow inscription of sites in ABNJ and establish appropriate management regimes: incremental and pragmatic agreement to minor changes in the way that they apply the treaty or formally announcing a change in the way that they intend to apply a treaty among themselves in the future; agreeing to an Amendment outside the terms of the 1972 Agreement; or developing an optional protocol to the 1972 Convention could be developed through an international negotiation among States Parties, binding only on those States that choose to ratify any resulting protocol. 5. The merits of these different options are explored. Under any scenario, a system will also need to be elaborated for the protection of World Heritage sites in areas beyond national jurisdiction. This will be an important undertaking which will require collaboration between UNESCO and the relevant competent international organizations and their States Parties.
On 24th April 1917 the imperial German submarine U-35, after crossing the Straits of Gibraltar, posi- tioned itself near Cape St Vincent, in the Algarve, Portugal. A few hundred metres from the Portuguese coast, the U-35 sank four merchant ships that day: three steamers and a sailboat. Nearly 100 years after this episode from World War I, three of these vessels are now silent testimonies for divers that visit them every year. They are silent, not because they do not have a name correlated with the ships sunk on that fateful day, but because their history and story, which were published ten years ago in a diving magazine, have only now attracted the attention of academics and are not being brought into the wider world of the diving and non-diving public. It is imperative that their history and our studies frame divers’ views during their deepwater exploration of these wrecks. Soon to be covered and contextualised by the UNES- CO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which Portugal has ratified, they should then be a matter of public awareness about the value and meaning of cultural heritage, primarily for in-situ preservation, as a form of appreciation and knowledge, and in situ recorded and studied as mul- tidisciplinary cultural, historical and archaeological information. They should also be promoted in situ for general public access, disseminated to the general public through educational measures and monitored for interference. In other words, they should be given back to the community as cultural heritage, which means giving them a public and social collective character and bringing them to fruition, in its full cultural dimension, i.e., more than objects, they are witnesses of a historical era and culture, with tour- istic and economic potential. The CINAV-PT Navy Research Centre/Portuguese Navy, together with the municipality of Vila do Bispo, the Portuguese Minister of Defence, and SUBNAUTA are developing a historical and archaeological project with the pur- pose to study the wrecks and to fulfil the entire spirit of the Convention, which also means to motivate and encourage other projects – national and international, through reciprocal contribution – and to focus on a multicultural and multinational human- istic approach, beyond the merely academic one.
Regulating Transnational Heritage: Intro
There is a vast body of international and national law that regulates cultural heritage. However, the current regulation remains quite blind to the so-called "transnational heritage". This is heritage where there is no community recognised in law that it can be directly attributed to and that can be responsible for its safekeeping and preservation. It can also be items of heritage where the claim of ownership is disputed between two or more peoples or communities. Transnational heritage challenges the idea of monolithic, mono-cultural, ethno-national states. There are a number of examples of such cultural heritage, for instance the Buddhist Bamiyan statutes in Afghanistan, Palmyra in Syria, the Jewish heritage of Iraq, or various items that are currently housed in large, often Western, museums, as a result of colonial practices. This book explores the regulation of transnational heritage. By discussing many cases of transnational heritage and the problems that arise owing to the lack of regulation, the book analyses the manifestations of memories and constructions of communities through heritage. It focuses particularly on the concept of community. How are communities constructed in cultural heritage law and what falls outside the definitions of community? The book underlines that the issues surrounding transnational heritage involve more than a communal right to culture. It is argued that transnational heritage also directly affects wider matters of law such as citizenship, human rights, sovereignty, as well as the movement of people and cultural goods.
Drama, Place and Verifiable link:: Underwater Cultural Heritage, Present Experience and Contention
Ifheritage is defined by the way it is experienced, then underwater cultural heritage is in a very specific position indeed. Is it defined by adventure and diving? Is it the realm of meticulous scientists engaging in detailed analysis? Or is it the exclusive domain of "in situ" protectionists who take draconic measures and spoil every expetience of the spirit of place? All positions can be taken. Contemporary thinking on being in the landscape, embodiment and the experience of place are an inspiration for heritage management. However, such thinking does not provide practical answers for those places which are beyond the horizon, outside the common field of vision. Imagination and dramatic mystery compensate for the absence of direct experience, but are hardly helpful as a basis fot well-considered decisions. The drama of shipwreck is just one aspect. Submerged landscapes extending beyond national borders raise similar concerns. Like wreck sites they reflect the connection of places, besides being a place in
BRIDGING THE GULF: MARITIME CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN
The book presents papers by archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and heritage specialists and highlights the multi-layered meaning of maritime cultural landscapes. The authors shift the emphasis from understanding heritage in its local context to discussing it across the waters of the Arabian Sea. The relationship between the sea and the land underlines the centrality of the coast; the communities who inhabited the space between the ocean and the hinterland; their histories and attempts at constructing their cultural environment. An important component of this cultural landscape is monumental architecture and archaeological sites, as also their inter-linkage with travelling groups who moved both across the sea, as well as on routes into the interior. A common concern that all papers share is with definitions of maritime heritage; different articulations of social and political power; and regional and local nautical traditions. One of the objectives of this volume is to underscore the important role of World Heritage, especially sites and monuments located along the coasts that have already been identified as national treasures by individual Nation States. The objective is to bring these coastal monuments and structures into dialogue with those located across the Ocean for a holistic understanding of maritime cultural heritage of the western Indian Ocean. It is suggested that this dialogue across the seas, would help in the protection and preservation of a maritime heritage known for its ‘outstanding universal value’.