Background

Unprecedented climate change has been observed in the last century and projected in the future, involving the warming of the atmosphere, lands, and oceans, reduction of ice and snow masses, sea level rise, ocean acidification, shift of weather patterns, and increase of extreme events. Climate change impact has been mainly assessed through its ecological, socioeconomic, and health implications. Nevertheless, environmental stresses have multiple and diverse effects, even on tangible cultural assets. The risk posed to their preservation, historical legacy, and component materials represents a global-scale issue, and also a topical subject of scientific research. An entire “invisible” domain has been somehow neglected, that of underwater cultural heritage, involving millions of submerged historical settlements, wrecks, artifacts, and structures worldwide. The research project WATERISKULT aims at filling this gap providing the first quantitative assessment of the climate change risk to underwater cultural heritage, with a focus on archaeological stone. Stone materials are among the most important natural resources used all through human history and prehistory, and, in fact, are part of countless remains of ancient buildings, artifacts, and ship cargoes sunken in the oceans.

Goals

WATERISKULT has two objectives:

• Simulate and predict the effects of key-factors of climate change on stone deterioration: ocean acidification and increasing extreme weather events (storms).
• Explore the causes and effects of current deterioration in archaeological sites, constrained by diverse rock properties and submarine environments, in view of possible future changing patterns.

The project also has the following long-term goals:

• Support the adoption of long-term strategies and policies for underwater site protection by heritage stakeholders.
• Pave the way to innovative studies of other archaeological materials, e.g., wood, metal, and clay-based.
• Mark a step forward in the assessment of the overall climate change risk to the anthroposphere.
• Raise public awareness of the diverse impacts of climate change, addressing also non-environmental themes.