To Study the Components of Defining Underwater Cultural Heritage in International Documents Regarding the 2001 UNESCO Convention

Although underwater cultural heritage is defined differently by various international documents, it is generally based on two criteria: the "temporal criterion" and the "nature criterion." Among these documents are the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea and the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2001. The 1982 Convention did not provide a definition of underwater cultural heritage, but referred to it as "objects of an archaeological and historical nature". Such a description has many drawbacks and ambiguities and does not give a clear picture of this type of heritage. To fill this gap, the 2001 UNESCO Convention defines underwater cultural heritage as a combination of the "criterion of nature", which means having a cultural, historical or archaeological nature, and the "temporal criterion" of being underwater for 100 years. The main challenge with this definition is which of the two criteria takes precedence over the other. Although both criteria are equally important in the Convention, the standard of 100 years underwater seems to take precedence over the "standard of nature". Especially since some people believe that any object that has been underwater for 100 years has an archeological and historical nature in itself.