Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) constitutes an invaluable resource, from an ecological, educational and economic point of view, that needs acknowledgement and proper treatment to continue offering significant benefits to humankind. However, despite its indisputable value, UCH has been mainly neglected in most marine planning attempts, given the prevailing sectorial approach. The protection of the underwater cultural heritage is represented by the Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 13 October 2005 in Faro and ratified by Italy on 23 September 2020. The Convention had the merit of defining an innovative and revolutionary concept of cultural heritage (CH), intended as the body of resources inherited from the past, identified by the citizens as the reflection and expression of their values, beliefs, knowledge and traditions in continuous evolution. It is based on these principles:
basis for the chain of research, conservation, protection, management and participation, and cultural dialogue, promoting the birth of a sustainable, multicultural, social, political and economic environment.
Experiencing the past underwater is rapidly becoming an enormous asset in the leisure industry and the “experience economy”. This development implies risks and opportunities for the protection as not all the UCH can be enjoyed through direct access for various reasons: position, depth and safety/integrity of the assets, but also safety and diving capabilities of researchers, citizens, stakeholders and tourists.
This is particularly true for the submerged deposits of shipwrecks. Just those provided of inorganic cargo and at a limited depth can be accessible, but only under favourable conditions of visibility and only to a few divers, that are only a small percentage of the whole community interested in exploring its own past.
The project aims to provide methodologies and tools for safer and uncrewed underwater archaeological heritage documentation and fruition by the whole society. We need to reverse the perspective: besides bringing people to heritage, we should bring heritage to people using digital technologies and extended reality’s narrative and communicative use, referring to every kind of virtual-augmented-mixed reality.
HISTORICAL
Improving the knowledge and the scientific research of the ancient shipwrecks from the Bronze age to the Modern age. It is possible to reconstruct the dense network of maritime connections, namely the most fruitful heritage of the Mediterranean, the sea in the middle of the land, the sea of proximity (Matvejevic, 2007). Focusing on the Adriatic-Ionian area.
GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL
Fostering the scientific research on the relative sea-level changes and the evolution of coastal landscapes
through the study of the beached wrecks as markers of the ancient shoreline.
CULTURAL
Ensuring the in situ preservation and protection of the shipwrecks through shared knowledge. Analyzing the state-of-the-art and subsequent identification and cataloguing of the
shipwrecks to implement the contents of the webGIS and point out other
possible case studies.
SOCIO-POLITICAL
Enhancing and making accessible the shipwrecks at various depths, through digital technologies and the narrative and communicative use of 3D models, extended reality storytelling and animation.
The objective responds to a new relationship between community and heritage and the principles of the
Faro Convention: heritage as a common good, a resource for the cultural, spiritual, social, and economic development of communities.
TECHNOLOGICAL AND SECURITY RELATED
Developing and testing a non-invasive 3D multi-sensors survey system. The latter can provide high-resolution surveys and monitoring for a wide range of
underwater applications based on image and range measurements as well as positioning systems. The system will be able to operate also at medium and high depths, which avoids the use of underwater scientific operators and the resulting risks.
