Strengthening underwater archeology in Latin America and the Caribbean

Photo: © UNESCO/J.V. Gonzalez. Pipes inside the boiler tanks of the armored cruiser Almirante Oquendo, Juan Gonzalez Beach, Underwater Archaeological Park linked to the Naval Battle of Santiago de Cuba.

UNESCO Virtual Course on the Training Manual for UNESCO Founding Course on the Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean has started with the shared aspiration to train underwater archaeologists capable not only of characterizing submerged heritage, but also of contributing to its protection.

Speaking at the opening session, the Officer in Charge of Internal Affairs at UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, Olga Rufins, welcomed the participation of 86 students in the course, from 28 Member States, of which 11 are from the Caribbean, as well as the possibility of greeting the professors who will teach the different subjects, all of them prestigious specialists and international experts in the field of underwater cultural heritage (UCH).

The situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic has implied a challenge for the completion of this course, which had to be converted from a theoretical-practical training to an exclusively theoretical and virtual one.

Today, the challenge has been met. This initiative begins to materialize, adding to the numerous actions historically developed by the Regional Office for Culture after the approval of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, aimed at promoting protection of the UCH and accessions to the Convention in the region, which is currently characterized by the highest degree of ratification of this normative instrument.

The course is a joint effort of UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean in Havana, UNESCO Office in Quito and Representation for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, and UNESCO Office in San Jose and Representation for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, in close coordination with the other UNESCO Offices in the region.

The opening session was greeted by Dr. Martijn Manders, head of the International Maritime Heritage Program of the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency, Associate Professor in Maritime Archeology at the University of Leiden and member of the ICOMOS International Committee for Underwater Cultural Heritage.

Ana Gonzalez-Medina, Culture Specialist, also conveyed a message of greeting, on behalf of Mr. Youssef Filali-Meknassi, Director of UNESCO Office in Quito.

The Course Coordinator, UNESCO Consultant and Research Professor of the Archeology Program of Externado University, Carlos del Cairo Hurtado, presented the training methodology, made up of 11 learning modules, each lasting one week. They will address the contents of different units of the Manual, except the eleventh, which will focus on the collaborative design of archaeological research project proposals.

The first session of the course concluded with keynote lectures by Ulrike Guerin, Secretary of the 2001 Convention, on this normative instrument, and by Tatiana Villegas, Specialist of the Culture Program of UNESCO Regional Office, on “UNESCO action for strengthening underwater archaeological research and capacities in the region”. Mrs. Villegas also underlined that most of UNESCO activities related to UCH have been possible thanks to the generous collaboration of the Maritime Program of the Agency for Heritage of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as well as the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).