Management of Submerged Cultural Resources

Mooring on Burøya, Bodø

Underwater cultural resources from both saltwater and freshwater contexts are protected under the Norwegian Ancient Monuments law (kulturminneloven). This includes the physical remains and contents (cargo, etc.) of vessels built more than 100 years ago, submerged archaeological deposits, and a wide range of other remains. The task of enforcing this component of the ancient monuments law has been allocated to five museums, each responsible for a specific region of the country. Professional staff were first assigned by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage to the museums in Oslo and Trondheim in 1989 with a position later established in Bergen and a fulltime position at the Tromsø Museum since 1996.

In accordance with the ancient monuments law, notification of the appropriate authorities at each of the five regional museums is required in advance of proposed development by the public or private sector which may adversely impact submerged cultural resources within the respective museum districts. Archaeological field investigations undertaken to assess and mitigate the impact of proposed development are financed by those responsible for adverse impacts (developers, local and national government agencies, etc.).

Tromsø Museum's district is significantly larger than those administrated by the other four regional museums and includes the two northernmost counties of Troms and Finnmark and the northern portion of Nordland county. Our district is situated north of the Arctic Circle and has a coastline in excess of 20,000 km, including numerous offshore islands and fjords. The sea has been of central importance to the inhabitants of North Norway since the region was first settled at the end of the Pleistocene. Settlements have always been clustered along the coast and relied on the marine environment not only as a conduit for communication and commerce but as a primary source of food.

Archaeological investigations of wrecks, harbors, and other underwater remains in conjunction with cultural resource management (CRM) activity have provided a substantial amount of data from central and southern Norway since the 1960s. In contrast, maritime archaeology in North Norway is still in its infancy and only a minute fraction of the region has been documented through underwater archaeological survey. Only a handful of field projects were undertaken in North Norway prior to the 1990s, and a majority of these were under the direction of individuals residing in southern Norway.

Until recently, maritime archaeology at the Tromsø Museum has focused on the development of a database for submerged cultural resources and the definition of "priority" areas where submerged remains are most likely to be found. A total of 113 maritime priority areas was established along the coast of North Norway in 1994 as part of a nationwide effort initiated by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage. These areas were intended to provide a means of assessing the potential for underwater cultural resources and serve as an aid to planners and archaeologists operating within a CRM framework. In northern Norway, priority areas were defined almost exclusively on the basis of written sources rather than the distribution of documented archaeological remains. This means that although priority areas may have a higher concentration of archaeological resources in theory, this has yet to be confirmed in the field.

Although the pace of field activity has quickened considerably since Tromsø Museum obtained a fulltime maritime archaeologist position in 1996, fieldwork has been largely restricted to shallow water diver based surveys of harbors where dredging, infilling, wharf construction, and other impacts have been proposed. Increased survey activity has allowed us to begin the task of documenting the distribution of cultural resources over a vast region and refine the boundaries of "priority" areas through empirical evidence.

Contact: Maritime Archaeologist Stephen Wickler