Challenges for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH), from Waterlogged and Weathered Stone Materials to Conservation Strategies: An Overview

Michela Ricca,Mauro Francesco La Russa

doi:10.3390/heritage3020024

Abstract

Despite the growing attention to Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) in Europe and worldwide, the efforts in wholly enjoying underwater archaeological assets and sites are still remarkable; hence, the need for innovative research and solutions that are suitable for raising knowledge on the subject. In this way, this paper wants to be a review for highlighting all of the developments, potentials, and results achieved in the last decade to reach a good protection of UCHs related to the study of stone materials, degradation processes, and the new methods for protection/consolidation directly in situ. The present work is focused on the analysis of the main results obtained from several studies conducted to date, providing additional guidelines for operators in the UCH sector (i.e., restorers, archaeologists, conservation scientists, geologists, etc.). Such guidelines will be a very useful key factor in enhancing knowledge, management, protection, and promotion of underwater sites. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the state of the art on both consolidated techniques for studying materials coming from seawater and innovations in the field of protection and consolidation of UCH against biofouling, the main cause of damage in underwater environments.

Highlights

For the last several decades, and after the adopted UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) [1], the safeguarding of materials from underwater environments has represented an ongoing challenge in the field of conservation of UCH [1]
From the beginning of modern underwater archaeology, more or less starting from the 1930s, scientists and researchers working on such specific and innovative subjects faced common and considerable challenges mainly linked to: (a) The lack of techniques, methods, tools, and resources tailored for the preservation of UCH, in situ; (b) insufficient measures to tackle the effects of climate changes or the damages that materials suffered in underwater environments
The in situ data collection is followed by sampling activities intended for analytical laboratory investigations, which are useful for the recognition of marine organisms causing decay and the study of the colonized lithotypes and related damage forms through physical and geochemical methods

Summary

Introduction

For the last several decades, and after the adopted UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) [1], the safeguarding of materials from underwater environments has represented an ongoing challenge in the field of conservation of UCH [1]. From the beginning of modern underwater archaeology, more or less starting from the 1930s, scientists and researchers working on such specific and innovative subjects faced common and considerable challenges mainly linked to: (a) The lack of techniques, methods, tools, and resources tailored for the preservation of UCH, in situ; (b) insufficient measures to tackle the effects of climate changes or the damages that materials suffered in underwater environments Moving from these difficulties, scientific and international Cultural Heritage protection organizations agreed on promotion, protection, and, where possible, in situ preservation of underwater archaeological and historical. One of the main goals of that Convention states that the in situ preservation of UCH should be considered as the first option before engaging in any further actions Following these principles and recommendations, in the last twenty years, many research works were focused on developing and testing new techniques and tools to support the protection and in situ conservation of underwater archaeological remains/structures [9,10,11,12,13]. A special focus is paid to studying the damage caused to stone materials due to biological activity through validated analytical techniques; a brief overview of the latest challenges and the experimentation with some eco-sustainable methods, techniques, and products to be applied in situ is presented

Stone Materials’ Damage Underwater

Sampling and Analytical Methods Applied in Geosciences to Study UCH

FOR PEER

Final Remarks

A Multidisciplinary approach for the study of underwater artefacts