Photo exhibition "Heritage under the Waves"

Underwater cultural heritage encompasses all traces of human existence that lie or were lying under water and have a cultural, archaeological or historical character. Over the centuries, thousands of ships, entire cities, and even landscapes have been swallowed by the waves. Their remains now constitute a precious heritage, which attracts increasing attention from researchers and the public. <br /><br />Scientists are finding more and more unique traces of the history of humanity under water. The oldest human remains in the Americas have been discovered in a flooded cave, the waters of the Mediterranean hide the remains of amazing ancient cities, like Apollonia in Lybia or Baia in Italy. Submerged Neanderthalian hunting grounds and painted caves have been found, as have been underwater Maya sacrificial sites and ancient pile dwellings, and last but not least, immense and tragic shipwrecks. <br /><br />All of them fire the imagination and expectation - and rightly so: often these sites contain, due to the lack of oxygen, biological material that is lost on comparable sites on dry land. These submerged time capsules reveal now fascinating stories about the past. <br /><br />