The physical protection of a 17th century VOC shipwreck in Sri Lanka

Current Science

Volumn 86, Issue 9, 2004, Pages 1251-1255

  Manders, M R ^a   Chandraratne, W M ^a   Dayananda, A M A ^a   Muthucumarana, R ^a   Weerasena, K B C ^a   Weerasingha, K D P ^a  

^a NONE   (Netherlands)

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EID: 4644283465     PISSN: 00113891     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. ICOMOS, Charter on the Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage, Sofia, 1996. The UNESCO convention concerning Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001) exists in two parts; 1. Set of rules that apply for the countries that have signed the convention. These countries have to implement these rules in their own law system 2. The Annex: a code of good practise in which is described how an archaeological research has to be executed. Article 1 relates to part 1.
2. Reclaimed land in the former Zuiderzee. The Noordoostpolder was reclaimed in 1942, Oostelijk Flevoland in 1957 and Zuidelijk Flevolandin 1967.
3. Oosting, R., Monumenten, 1990, 3/4, 26-29.
4. Maarleveld, Th. J., Bull. Aust. Inst. Maritime Archaeol., 1993, 17/2, 31-36; also see De Verenigde Oostindische Companie (VOC, United (Dutch) East India Company).
5. Nederlands Instituut voor Scheeps - en onderwaterArcheologie/ Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek (NISA/ROB). For MoSS see text and note 7. For BACPOLES see text and note 8.
6. Test with this kind of physical protection has also been executed in Germany on the Darsser Cog and in Great Britain on the Colossus.
7. The partners in the project are: Finland (Maritime Museum of Finland), England (Mary Rose Archaeological Services Ltd.), Sweden (Södertörns Högskola), Denmark (National Museum of Denmark/ Centre for Maritime Archaeology in Roskilde), Germany (Department for the Conservation of Archaeological Sites and Monuments/ Archaeological Museum of the State Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) and The Netherlands (Nederlands Instituut voor Scheeps - en onderwaterArcheologie/Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek, NISA/ROB). See also: www.mossproject.com
8. The partners in the BACPOLES project are: SHR Foundation of Timber Research (Co-ordinator, The Netherlands), Fugro (The Netherlands), University of Portsmouth (United Kingdom), Netherlands Institute for Ship and Underwater Archaeology/National Service for Archaeological Heritage NISA/ROB (The Netherlands), RING Centre for Dendrochronology (The Netherlands), Ecopiano Engineering SRL (Italy), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Wood Science (Sweden), Phagen AB (Sweden), University Göttingen, Institute of Wood Biology and Technology (Germany), University Göttingen, Institute of Soil Science and Forest Nutrition (Germany). See also WWW.BACPOLES.nl
9. Of which a cargo of areca nuts (Areca catechu). These are the seeds of a palm tree and an ingredient of Sirih, a kind of chew.
10. It is thought that the ship derived its name from the fact that it was already old when the Dutch captured it, since 'Avondster' means 'Evening Star'. The historical information about the Avondster is taken from the Sri Lanka Maritime Archaeological Unit, Publication No. 1, 2003.
11. The wreck has been discovered during a survey of Galle Harbour. This Galle Harbour Project started in 1992 and lasted three years. It was a co-operation between the Department of Archaeology (Sri Lanka), the Central Cultural Fund (Sri Lanka), the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology (Sri Lanka) and the Western Australian Maritime Museum (Australia).
12. The wreck itself will not be taken up because of the fact that the ship would be extremely expensive to lift, to conserve and to exhibit. The information about the ship construction will be gathered under water. The finds are being conserved in a laboratory near the site and created for the Avondster project.
13. In 2004 the involvement of the Netherlands and Australia will be reduced. The people from the Maritime Archaeological Unit (MAU) of Sri Lanka that have been educated within the Avondster Project will take over the excavation and conservation of the objects.
14. Manders, Martijn, Bull. Aust. Inst. Maritime Archaeol., 2002, 26, 99-104.
15. See MoSS (2003). The Wadden Sea is much colder (from approx. O to 22°C depending on the season) and has a strong tidal movement. It seems that it transports much more sand up and down the seabed than in Galle Harbour. This process seems to be also much more gradual. The Wadden Sea in some ways is comparable with the situation in Galle: It is also shallow and has a sandy seabed.
16. This net has been manufactured in Israel by Polly Sack Plastic Industries. The density can be compared with the shading capacity.
17. If a sandy environment is stable, oxygen only penetrates through a top layer of about a few millimetres to a few centimetres. The seabed around the Avondster site is not stable. This is why probably a thicker layer of sand is aerobic. The net however takes away the influences of the swell and currents. We have seen by the colour of the sand (black is usually anaerobic) that under the net the sand turns into a stable and anaerobic environment. We have done some tests outside the wreck with a handheld redox devise to measure the reduction of oxygen potential of the sediment. The results were however not satisfactory. It takes a few days on site for redox sensors to stabilize. In the future it would be good to do some research on the site with a data logger that can measure the redox-potential and that can stay on the site for a longer period and that can read data after every fixed time. These systems have been used in the MoSS project. See for more information the website of the MoSS-project.
18. This net is manufactured in Sri Lanka by Malba Ropes Ltd and is normally used in the shrimp fishing industry.
19. Björdahl, C. G., Daniel, G. and Nilsson, T., Int. Biodeteriorat. Biodegradat., 2000, 45, 15-26.