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Critique of Practical Archaeology: Underwater Cultural Heritage and Best Practices

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Abstract

The international development of the underwater archaeology and underwater cultural heritage (UCH) management disciplines has witnessed a progressive buildup of the disciplinary debate. From an initial methodological focus, still active and necessary, the two interconnected disciplines have moved toward topics and aspects external, but complementary, to the disciplines themselves which are tied together in mutual exchange. Legal, economic, social, cultural (stricto sensu), and psychological aspects all find their expression in strategies quintessential, especially, to the management of UCH. The discipline’s socio-cultural wherewithal has been internationally recognized, analyzed, evaluated, and exploited in the planning of activities directed toward UCH management. In Italy, however, a lack of a coherent planning has emerged which does not take into account the various aspects composing a productive program for the management of UCH, both at the regional and national levels. Considering the issue in Italy, this contribution will offer an overview of the Sardinian perspective, offering some considerations toward envisaging an achievable, structured program for the management of underwater cultural resources within a specific regional panorama.

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Notes

  1. The UNESCO, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the Council of Europe (CoE) have all drafted instruments dealing with the protection and management of UCH (Strati 1995; O’Keefe 1996; Garabello 2004; Dromgoole 2006; Frigerio 2010; Scovazzi 2010).

  2. McGuire previously expressed this idea in a contribution written with Shanks and McGuire in (1996, p. 83), in which the authors stated how “archaeology as craft must lead to multiple archaeologies and diverse archaeological products as it enters into dialogues with different interests and communities.”

  3. Fagan’s outburst resulted from the observation of some looters’ pits at sites along the southern coast of California.

  4. Bauman (2011) described the time in which we live as the age of “Liquid Modernity,” a continuously evolving world in which models and moral values usually binding human existence are losing the ability to portray the individual experience characterizing this age. In such a world, the individual, who must make ready the skills and processes to be able to, all alone, face the many human vicissitudes, finds himself in a position of an “individual de jure,” as Bauman (2011) defines it, to whom no ability or suitability correspond to render himself an “individual de facto” (see also Secci 2013a).

  5. The University Reform—Law 30 December 2010, n. 240 and subsequent decrees is also called “Gelmini’s Reform” after the name of the Minister, Gelmini, who drafted it.

  6. An overview of the Bologna process can be found in the European Commission website, at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/higher-education/bologna-process_en.htm (last accessed: 10 February 2015).

  7. Translation of this quote has been taken from “The critique of practical reason” translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott and is available online at: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/kant/critique-practical-reason.pdf. Last accessed, 24 February 2014.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. Sebastiano Tusa (Soprintendenza del Mare-Regione Siciliana) and the other hosts for their excellent organization of the EUPLOIA Conference and for allowing us to publish this paper in advance. Although conceived as a uniform paper, authors have concurrently drafted paragraphs one, two and six, while paragraphs three and four were drafted by Massimiliano Secci and paragraph five by Pier Giorgio Spanu. Also, we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their precious critical feedback.

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  1. Dipartimento di Storia, Scienze dell’Uomo e della Formazione, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Viale Umberto I, 07100, Sassari, Italy

    Massimiliano Secci & Pier Giorgio Spanu

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  1. Massimiliano Secci
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  2. Pier Giorgio Spanu
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Correspondence to Massimiliano Secci.

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Secci, M., Spanu, P.G. Critique of Practical Archaeology: Underwater Cultural Heritage and Best Practices. J Mari Arch 10, 29–44 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-015-9136-1

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