The Underwater Cultural Heritage

Evidence of mankind's past is found in submerged sites throughout the world. Maritime Archaeology, a sister discipline to land archaeology, is the scientific investigation of such underwater sites. The majority of underwater sites are shipwrecks and the Maritime Archaeologist has a special expertise in ships and allied matters. Submerged sites may, however, be prehistoric settlements, sunken land sites, or, crashed aeroplanes! In Australia the time-scale in which Maritime Archaeology is involved is very broad: The routes taken by the first Aboriginal migrations from Asia to Australia during the Ice Ages, more than 40,000 years ago, are now up to 100 metres below sea level.