Extensive distributional survey of the underwater cultural heritage revealed the disposition of 230 underwater cultural heritage sites in the Ryukyu Archipelago, and 23 sites out of 230 are identified as the wreck sites. Dates of these wrecks vary…
Seaways, especially monsoonal ones, allow movement on two directions. However Eurocentric approaches have tended to create hierarchies of cultures which have biased movements in particular directions to the historical exclusion of some narratives.…
The ships and boats of the 15th and early 16th century European voyages were the space shuttles of their time, and yet we don’t know much about them because most have been destroyed by looters and treasure hunters. This paper will focus on a…
The Asian Research Institute of Underwater Archaeology (ARIUA) at Fukuoka and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, which is a member institution of the UNESCO Underwater Archaeology Unitwin Network, have researched upon the 17th century…
Lake Biwa is the largest and oldest lake in Japan. It has approximately 4,000,000 years of history, and many people have lived on this lake. More than 90 underwater archaeological sites exist here, and we are able to understand the subtleties of…
The entry into force in 2009 of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (hereinafter referred to as ‘UCH Convention’) adopted in 2001 could be regarded as a welcome development to elaborate or clarify any ambiguity…
Uraga Port at the southern end of the Miura Peninsula, located at the entrance of Tokyo Bay, is formed as a deep cove from the Pacific Ocean; it is less susceptible to weather conditions and is suitable for the natural environment. In the 16th and…
In the past seven years, photogrammetry has become one of the main recording methods in maritime and underwater archaeology. The application of photogrammetry allows archaeologists to re-create underwater cultural heritage sites in 3D digital…
In 2014, a non-exhaustive inventory of the shared cultural heritage of the Netherlands and Japan was made by the Dutch government in the context of what the Netherlands calls its ‘Shared Cultural Heritage Policy’. This inventory resulted in an…
In 2016 an iron grapnel was shown in some special exhibitions marking the 40th anniversary of the Sinan shipwreck excavation in Korea. The grapnel 2.3m length has four arms, and it had been raised by a fisherman’s net in 1972 before the wreck was…
During the Sino-French War of 1884, the Qing military intentionally sank a number of wrecks filled with rocks under the Tamsui River and surrounded them with naval mines and many railings to form a barrier against the French invasion. In 2014, one…
Chinese sailing traditions changed a little through time; sailors inherited their onboard skills, expertise, and experience by orally imparting others with physical instruction. But these daily skills were rarely recorded or studied in the past. For…
The National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage (NRIMCH) in Republic of Korea has promoted the 4-years ‘Development Project of Underwater Cultural Heritage Exploration Techniques’ from 2013 through 2016. During the project, the…
The Ryukyu Archipelago is well known for its beautiful ocean and coral reefs; and thanks to these beautiful oceans, scuba diving and snorkeling and have become one of the most important activities for its tourist industry of the archipelago. Around…