International Association for the Study of Arabia (IASA)
RESEARCH NOTICES
Maritime Endangered Archaeology Project Andreou, G.M., H.O. Huigens, R. Ortiz-Vazquez, J. Nikolaus, K. Westley, C. Safadi, C. Breen and L. Blue
Maritime cultural heritage is exceptionally vulnerable to natural processes such as shifting coastal geomorphology, sea-level rise, tropical cyclones and erosion, many of which are associated with climate change as explored in scholarly literature. This is also due to the nature and location of coastal, nearshore and underwater features, as well as the higher population density of coastal locales and associated demographic pressures, which often result in increasing building, industrial and touristic development. These are issues known both to governments and the academic community with a growing corpus of published coastal assessment methodologies implementing shoreline change models, terrestrial and UAV surveys, remote sensing, and community-engagement approaches. The remarkable range of tested methodologies on coastal monitoring in archaeology combined with the long history of archaeological research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) offer an excellent opportunity for the assessment and monitoring of the rich maritime cultural heritage of this region. Research into the maritime cultural heritage of the MENA is largely undertaken by non-local professionals, including important attempts to build capacity (Blue and Breen 2019; Demesticha et al. 2019). At a local level oftentimes the lack of infrastructure, expertise and often financial resources can inhibit long-term monitoring and management of maritime cultural heritage. Above all, the development of effective management and mitigation strategies for the loss of maritime cultural heritage is frequently hindered by a lack of baseline data relating to cultural heritage (e.g. site location) and potential threats (natural and anthropogenic). The Maritime Endangered Archaeology (MarEA) Project aims to address some of these challenges and highlight the maritime cultural heritage of this region and its historic importance. MarEA is a 5-year collaborative project (20192024) based at the University of Southampton and Ulster University and funded by the Arcadia fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. MarEA aims to enhance the understanding of maritime cultural heritage and its environmental setting by documenting site locations and monitoring any disturbances and threats visible to maritime archaeological sites in the MENA region. One of the key aims of the project is to liaise with local government agencies and in-country partners to collaborate in achieving these goals and assist in the development of training programmes and tools designed to engage with local communities and enhance the efficiency of existing heritage management strategies. 42
The initial focus of the project is to rapidly create a digital inventory of sites and features, with emphasis on associated information on disturbances and threats using existing literature and remote sensing analysis (aerial photographs, satellite imagery), supplemented, where possible, with geophysical data and field observations (Figure 1). These observations are stored in an online database (database. eamena.org) and form the basis of subsequent monitoring of sites, and in-depth research on specific phenomena that are impacting these sites such as flooding, coastal erosion and anthropogenic alterations (Figures 2-3).
Figure 1: Ongoing documentation of pre-1960s shipwrecks in Oman (based on existing databases such as www.wrecksite.eu).
Figure 2: Flooding after Depression ARB1 cyclone event in Salalah, Oman. Close-up to Al Baleed (Imagery acquired and used with permission from Maxar Technologies; image analysis on ArcGIS Pro)
