• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.171-179
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• 2005

Korea has many underwater cultural heritages within the east, west and south seas surrounding the Peninsula that indicate historically important sealanes for trade and transportation. As these underwater cultural heritages are the objects of despoilment because of their relatively easy access through modern technology, their often high historical and priceless value demands strong protection similar to or better than the land cultural properties. Currently, Korea does not have any concrete laws or regulations for the protection of underwater cultural heritages. Thus, these heritages iu, somewhat temporary and inappropriately subjected to laws and regulations relating to provisions of individual Laws concerning protection of cultural properties act, and statute of excavation of material fir buried national property, lost articles act etc.. Internationally, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage was adopted but not yet entered into force. Therefore, the protection of underwater cultural heritage has become an urgent matter. In this regard, this article's main purpose is to provide recommendations for improving direction of legal regime and policy for protecting our underwater cultural heritages. These legal regimes need provisions for definition of the underwater cultural heritage, scope of application, ownerships, jurisdictions and protection measures. And suggestions are provided in regard to policies for the protection of underwater cultural heritages that may improve organization and cooperation among concerned ministries and agencies, compensation system, restrictions for excavation of underwater relics, efficiency of survey of underwater surface and information system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Marine Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.154-155
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• 2005

A trial excavation of underwater cultural properties at Dongsam site in Busan has been conducted. The site is located in the vicinity of Dongsam shell mound. The trial excavation consists of the shore investigation and the underwater investigation. For the shore investigation four trenches were digged. For the underwater investigation twenty boreholes were cored, and sediments at four predetermined sites were removed by air lifting technique. From the trial excavation a stump of a tree with many pieces of wood, and a few fragments of earthenwares were found. A comprehensive study of the trail excavation might furnish data for studying ancient coastal environment.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.34
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• pp.210-220
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• 2001

UNESCO convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage(hereafter 'UCH')was adopted in the Fourth meeting of governmental experts on the draft Convention on the protection of UCH. Accordingly, Korea will prepare an appropriate policy for the protection of UCH. This article aims to give policy directions for the protection of UCH in Korea. Korea has some legislation relating to protection of cultural property. However, these legislation did not have effective schemes to protect UCH. Moreover, the Cultural Properties Administration which is a primary agency for protecting UCH has been ineffective in their effort for protecting UCH. To Protect UCH, I suggest establishment of law relating to protection of UCH, designation of competent authorities for protection of UCH in accordance to UNESCO Convention, and establishment of a long term national plan for protection of UCH.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.174-193
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• 2023

Korea is surrounded by the sea and has rivers connecting to it throughout the inland areas, which has been a geographical characteristic since ancient times. As a result, there have been exchanges and conflicts with various countries through the sea, and rivers have facilitated the transportation of ships carrying grain, goods paid for by taxes, and passengers. Since the past, the sea and rivers have had a significant impact on the lives of Koreans. Consequently, it is expected that there are many cultural heritages submerged in the sea and rivers, and continuous efforts are being made to discover and preserve them. Underwater cultural heritage is difficult to discover due to its location in the sea or rivers, making direct visual observation and exploration challenging. To overcome these limitations, various geophysical survey techniques are employed. Geophysical survey methods utilize the physical properties of elastic waves, including their reflection and refraction, to conduct surveys such as bathymetry, underwater topography and strata. These techniques detect the physical characteristics of underwater objects and seafloor formation in the underwater environment, analyze differences, and identify underwater cultural heritage located on or buried in the seabed. Bathymetry uses an echo sounder, and an underwater topography survey uses a side-scan sonar to find underwater artifacts lying on or partially exposed to the seabed, and a marine shallow strata survey uses a sub-bottom profiler to find underwater heritages buried in the seabed. However, the underwater cultural heritage discovered in domestic waters thus far has largely been accidental findings by fishermen, divers, or octopus hunters. This study aims to analyze and summarize the latest research trends in equipment used for underwater cultural heritage exploration, including bathymetric surveys, underwater topography surveys and strata surveys. The goal is to contribute to research on underwater cultural heritage investigation in the domestic context.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.312-321
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• 2021

Underwater archaeology relies heavily on photography and video image recording during surveillances and excavations like ordinary archaeological studies on land. All underwater images suffer poor image quality and distortions due to poor visibility, low contrast and blur, caused by differences in refractive indices of water and air, properties of selected lenses and shapes of viewports. In the Yellow Sea (between mainland China and the Korean peninsula), the visibility underwater is far less than 1 m, typically in the range of 30 cm to 50 cm, on even a clear day, due to very high turbidity. For photographing 1 m x 1 m grids underwater, a very wide view angle (180°) fisheye lens with an 8 mm focal length is intentionally used despite unwanted severe barrel-shaped image distortion, even with a dome port camera housing. It is very difficult to map wide underwater archaeological excavation sites by combining severely distorted images. Development of practical compensation methods for distorted underwater images acquired through the fisheye lens is strongly desired. In this study, the source of image distortion in underwater photography is investigated. We have identified the source of image distortion as the mismatching, in optical axis and focal points, between dome port housing and fisheye lens. A practical image distortion compensation method, using customized image processing software, was explored and verified using archived underwater excavation images for effectiveness in underwater archaeological applications. To minimize unusable area due to severe distortion after distortion compensation, practical underwater photography guidelines are suggested.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.421-435
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to suggest environmental guidelines for the conservation of ceramics excavated from underwater. Accordingly, the conditional change of the soluble salt on surface of the excavated ceramics was examined by changing the relative humidity. Examining the relative ratio [high humidity(RH70%+RH80%)/low humidity(RH20%+ RH40%)] for 24 weeks using accumulated conductivity(${\mu}s/cm$), the result showed that the amount of ion elution increased more in high humidity than in low humidity. In particular, the ion elution increased significantly within the celadon sample. In addition, comparing the accumulated conductivity and physical characteristics of the samples in high humidity, the results indicated that the amount of the ion elution is proportioned to the increased rate of the sample's absorption capacity and porosity. Ceramics excavated from underwater has risks of the secondary physical and chemical attacks from remaining salts. Therefore, it is suggested these ceramics be stored in a storage which maintains proper temperature and low humidity conditions. Also, the collections need to be pre-classified according to the properties of the materials.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.307-320
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• 2020

This study focuses on the raw material characteristics, including firing temperature and the similarity of clay body, and making techniques on the underwater ceramics from offshore of Taean Mado, the Republic of Korea. The ceramic specimens include various types of celadons, Buncheongwares and white porcelains with very similar physical characteristics. All the clay bodies composed of same mineral phases within mullite and quartz, while cristobalite were also found in some white porcelains. Also, the geochemical composition of the clay body shows regular behavior properties for all the elements consisting of the celadons and Buncheongwares. In contrast, the irregular properties of trace and incompatible elements were found in white porcelains. Therefore, it is presumed that the white porcelains were made using the clay body with different source from the celadons and Buncheongwares. Notably, some white porcelains in low Th content are assumed to be made with clay formed in a different environments. Meanwhile, most of the ceramics had gone through the firing of 1,200 to 1,300℃, with some celadons fired from 1,150℃ to 1,200℃. Also, it can be interpreted as some white porcelains were fired on even up to 1,500℃.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.167-179
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• 2017

In this study, Sangpyeontongbo excavated at Bigyeongdo, Seosan, were investigated to determine the components of the corrosion products that were formed while they were buried underwater in an anaerobic environment. The causes of corrosion product formation were also determined. Microstructure observation, element mapping, principle component analysis for each year, and the detection of corrosion products were carried out. Results indicate that the concretions of corrosion products on the surface are needle-, hexahedral-, and octahedral-shaped; Pb, Cu, and S were among the elements detected. The Cu-S layer was clearly verified using element mapping. An analysis of major elements for each layer showed that Cu, S, and Pb were present and that most Zn was eliminated. The corrosion products detected were $PbCO_3$ (concretion) and $Cu_{1.96}S$ (metal). Accordingly, the anaerobic corrosion properties of Sangpyeongtongbo are summarized as follows: dezincification, copper sulfide, and lead compound.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.114-122
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• 2018

As part of a larger study of indigenous prokaryotic species diversity in South Korea, various samples from Namhangang were subjected to analyses. Fresh water, underwater sediment, and moss-inhabiting aerobic and anaerobic bacteria were isolated. 22 of the isolates were identified as unrecorded bacterial species in Korea that had ${\geq}98.7%$ 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with published species. The aerobic strains isolated were Kurthia gibsonii and Massilia plicata. Also identified were four facultative anaerobic strains: Bacillus hisashii, Enterococcus rotai, Paenibacillus vini, and Pediococcus pentosaceus. 16 strictly anaerobic strains were identified as Bacteroides xylanolyticus, Carnobacterium maltaromaticum, Clostridium argentinense, Clostridium beijerinckii, Clostridium butyricum, Clostridium cavendishii, Clostridium diolis, Clostridium frigidicarnis, Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum, Clostridium sphenoides, Clostridium subterminale, Cutibacterium acnes, Paraclostridium bifermentans, Prevotella paludivivens, and Romboutsia lituseburensis. Based on the examination of morphological, cultural, physiological, and biochemical properties of the isolates, descriptive information of these previously unrecorded species is provided here.