Government has decided to build India’s 1st National Maritime Heritage Museum by collaborating archaeologists from CSIR-NIO & NIOT at Lothal, a Harappan site on the Saurashtra coast in Gujarat which is also the site of one of the oldest ports in India dating back to the Bronze Age.
Crux of the Matter
The museum is being set up with technical help from the Portuguese Maritime Heritage Museum.
The museum will be an independent research centre of underwater archaeology for the reconstruction of maritime history and the archaeology of boat building.
It will have on display salvaged material from shipwreck sites in the Indian Ocean waters.
According to UNESCO, there are an estimated three million undiscovered shipwrecks lying on the ocean floor out of which many of them got wrecked in Indian coastal waters; thus these studies have vast potential along with India’s rich maritime history.
Studying sunken ships could fill the gaps in India’s maritime history and trade links with other countries.
Curiopedia
Maritime Archaeology is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea. In India, shipwreck studies were initiated in 1989 off the Sunchi Reef in Goa waters after which many shipwrecks were recovered. Maritime archaeological sites often result from shipwrecks or sometimes seismic activity, and thus represent a moment in time rather than a slow deposition of material accumulated over a period of years, as is the case with port-related structures such as piers, wharves, docks and jetties where objects are lost or thrown off structures over extended periods of time. More Info
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