Archaeological Deskstudies - 2008
Archaeological deskstudies are required to determine if there are any archaeological remains left in or on the seafloor, before any planned activities can take place in certain areas. The European Convention on the protection of the archaeological heritage (Valletta, 1992) is requiring Member States of the Council of Europe to require maritime a archaeological research. Since the legislation on archaelogical monumental care (21 december 2006), this kind of research is essential.
The deskstudy consists of the expected archaeological values determined by analysing all the information collected regarding an area, combined with indicative maps of archaeological values and, if available, more detailed predictive maps. This results in a report with a specified predictive model and possibly with recommendations on the expected archaeological values for the developer, as described in the Quality Norm Dutch Archaeology (usually reffered to as the KNA).
In 2008 Periplus Archeomare BV executed deskstudies for several locations in The Netherlands and on the North Sea. Usually the desk-based assessment is followed by an archaeological field evaluation on water, which will develop into a possible excavation when interesting archaeological findings are found. In most of the projects Periplus Archeomare BV participated in field evaluations were undertaken, for example 'Shipwreck Buiten IJ' and 'Shipwreck Dordtsche Kil'.
Periplus Archeomare BV executes archaeological deskstudies in cooperation with ADC Archeoprojecten.