3rd Warsaw Seminar on Underwater Archaeology - report

The beginning of the year is marked by excellent diving-related events at the University of Warsaw. The first of them, however much more niche than the Wreck Festival, on which we meet this Saturday, was the next edition of the only international conference on underwater archaeology in Poland: 3rd Warsaw Seminar on Underwater Archaeology.

When two years ago the previous meeting, organised on a much smaller scale, was a great success and received unexpected publicity (guests came then from 38 research centres from all over the world) it was decided that the conference should be given even greater prestige. The Rector of the University of Warsaw agreed to take the conference under his patronage and the Scientific Committee, headed by Bartosz Kontny, Ph.

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Photo: Magdalena Sugalska

The tone of the event was set by excellent special guests. The conference opened with a lecture by Professor Iván Negueruel Martínez (from the Museo Nacional de Arqueología Subacuática in Cartagena) on research on the wreck of the Mercedes, at a dizzying depth of 1138 m. Representatives from the Bornholm Archaeological Research Center, Finn Ole Nielsen and M. Nicolas Caretta, presented the audience with issues related to the protection of the underwater cultural heritage around the Baltic island. Professor Vladas Žulkus from the University of Klaipeda told in turn about the fascinating Lithuanian expeditions to the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Photo: Jakub Stępnik

The conference was attended by many researchers representing Polish centres – the Jagiellonian University, the University of Gdańsk, the University of Szczecin, the Nicolaus Copernicus University and of course the host team. The meeting was honoured by the presence of archaeologists from Senegal and Taiwan, Israel, Iceland, Germany, Greece, Montenegro, Italy, Ukraine and Slovakia. We listened to captivating stories about the research of underwater sites of rivers and lakes of Europe, the Baltic, North and Black Seas, the Mediterranean basin, South-East Asia, Kuwait, Guatemala or Peru, and the development of the protection of underwater cultural heritage in distant Senegal. The presentations dealt not only with wrecks and amphorae, but also with ports, surface settlements, cult sites, fisheries and, above all, the use of the latest technological advances in the search for and documentation of underwater monuments.

Photo: Magdalena Sugalska

We would like to thank you for your presence – it was a great pleasure to welcome you once again to the University of Warsaw. All interested who could not make it to Warsaw this time, are kindly invited to the fourth edition of the meeting, which will take place in January 2021. Information related to the conference, but also to the activities of underwater archaeologists from the University of Warsaw, you can follow on Facebook and on website.

Photo: Jakub Stępnik

The conference was made possible by the invaluable support of the Polish Branch of The Explorers Club and the Warsaw Diving Museum. The event was also co-financed by the Vice-Chancellor for Scientific Affairs of the University of Warsaw and the Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw. The conference was held under the patronage of His Magnificence Rector of the University of Warsaw, Prof. Marcin Pałys.

Photo Magdalena

“3rd Warsaw Seminar on Underwater Archaeology” – a task financed within the framework of the agreement No. 595/P-DUN/2018 from the funds of the Minister of Science and Higher Education allocated for science dissemination activities.

Chairman of the Scientific Committee: Dr. Bartosz Kontny, Prof. UW

Scientific Committee: Radosław Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski, PhD, Iwona Modrzewska-Pianetti, PhD, Waldemar Ossowski, Prof. UG, Andrzej Pydyn, PhD, Mariusz Ziółkowski, PhD

Organisational Committee: Aleksandra Chołuj, Małgorzata Mileszczyk, Magdalena Nowakowska, Artur Brzóska

Title photo: Jakub Stępnik

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