Visit-Montenegro.com: Museums at the bottom of the sea unlocked

Recently completed mission of the research vessel “Hercules” in the Bay of Kotor teamed up with the expertise of archaeologist from the Regional Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Kotor - Vilma Kovacevic, resulted in discovery of the most precious hydro-archaeological sites in Montenegrin sea bed – the remains of two Roman cargo ships and a solution to the 90-year-old mystery of the final destination of WWI German submarine U-71.

Apart from the fact that the scholar of the Regional Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and experts of the “RPM Nautical” Foundation from Florida added some crown jewels to the cultural treasury residing on the sea bottom in the Bay of Kotor, they concurrently made their voices heard and helped in raising awareness that our country lacks institutional precondition to properly explore and, most of all, protect cultural heritage which outweighs the national importance.

- These new archaeological sites need legal and physical protection now. Legal protection implies adopting decisions on so-called preliminary protection until all the paper work is completed and these findings are proclaimed archaeological cultural monuments. Physical protection entails that it is necessary to provide services and engage all our resources within public institutions and local government bodies to protect this sites physically, word for word. - Ruzica Ivanovic, General Manager of the Regional Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Kotor, says.

She added that physical protection of the sites should follow and “it involves enclosing the site, the way it is done worldwide, and we have an example in the neighborhood, in Croatia”, and after this newly discovered hydro archaeological sites in Boka would be available to tourist divers.

Presently, Croatia is among world pioneers in the unique method of protection of submerged sites by installing metal cages which keep the sites well-protected from looting and they represent real small underwater museums. There is a huge interest in them worldwide, and this kind of protection is given preference by UNESCO as well.

By using this method, eight sites with antic Roman shipwrecks with amphorae have been protected in the maritime zone of Lastovo, Rab, Pag, Zirje, Umag and Rogoznica.

Advantage of applying this method lies is minimizing the need of systematic archaeological survey which might last for several years. The survey is an extremely expensive procedure since everything has to be taken out of the sea, cleaned and, in most cases, placed in museum storerooms, or, though rarely, on public displays in museums. In this case, after minor trial research, everything stays on the bottom of the sea and a cage made of steel is installed around the site. Afterwards, local diving centers get concession through the public tenders and, based on this, ministries of culture can arrange tours taking groups of divers on these sites. Divers-guides are allowed to unlock the cage and let divers-guests inside. When the tour is over, cage is locked again. Cage protection deters potential looters and prevents devastation of the site. At the same time, cages provide leisure divers with the opportunity to see valuable findings but without touching underwater objects. There is already a great demand in Australia for this Croatian “receipt”. In Italy, similar archaeological sites are protected from devastation by using thick steel nets and in some other countries by sandbags. But, this kind of protection implies that wrecks and other remains of archaeological sites cannot be seen in-situ.

Ivanovic points out that new archaeological sites in Boka, which have been protected so far only by not disclosing their exact location, need to be properly secured and by doing so, financial resources could be generated from diving tourism and then used for protection of underwater archaeological sites. She remarks that, apart from the Diving Association and Maritime Police Unit, Montenegro has none institution which would be in charge of protecting these sites from scuba looters.

- Luckily enough, we held a meeting recently with representatives of these institutions which could contribute to the protection of underwater archaeological sites, but I believe that we need to provide staff professional training on vessels of maritime police and port authorities so that they could better recognize “potential danger” such as unauthorized visits to archaeological sites by groups of divers or some valuable objects that were possibly removed from the sites – Ivanovic said adding that the new Law on Cultural Heritage should be adopted soon and thus underwater cultural heritage will be protect adequately as well.

Vilma Kovacevic underlines that there is not a single expert diver archaeologist in Montenegro and that latest discoveries put into limelight the need to establish institution specialized in underwater archaeology and to support the findings by documentary evidence.

- For the time being, we had only a “primary insight” into these archaeological sites. In order to protect them by law, we need to make the report and provide documentation of the survey. This implies detailed mapping and recording of the site. First and foremost, a large square grid is placed over the area to assist in the mapping procedure. This is followed by cleaning the site, i.e. excavations by digging the sand to see if there are some additional parts of the shipwreck – Kovacevic says for Daily News “Vijesti”.

In her words, on sites where wrecks of two Roman ships were located, their cargo is actually only visible for now, including ceramic tiles used as roofing material on the first site and different types of amphora intended for transport of olive-oil, wine and sea fish on the other site. Excavations should determine whether there are some remains of wooden hull or some other objects under layers of sand.

- So, we need divers down there. From the Regional Center for Training of Divers and Underwater De-mining from Bijela we have been confirmed that they have the necessary equipment for excavation, cameras, a system for radio-communication between divers and the team on surface craft which could supervise and manage their work in-situ. Documentary evidence including video footage with sonar range measurements and detailed description provide the basis for further legal protection of these sites – Kovacevic highlights.

Owing to her great experience in archaeological researches in the Bay of Kotor, Vilma Kovacevic practically showed American experts on “Hercules” where exactly to look for the remains of Roman ships.