6 1 / 2023 // LEOPOLDINA / NEWS

Leopoldina Member Hermann Parzinger on activities and results of the working group

The North and Baltic Seas are home to archaeological sites such as the wreck of the Swedish warship “ Prinsessan Hedvig Sophia ” which sank close to Kiel / Germany in 1715 . The Leopoldina working group discussed how to protect these cultural assets .

Image : Gerhard Lorenz , Wendtorf , and F . Wilkes | Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research

Two new discussion papers have been published by the Working Group on Archaeological Heritage . Hermann Parzinger ML , archaeologist and president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation , comments on these and upcoming activities . ians , but it also includes lawyers and international lawyers , as the legal situation is always an important consideration . There are also cultural heritage specialists , and for some topics we have brought in writers who are not permanent members .

How did the working group decide on the topics it wanted to work on ? Parzinger : The core group , which at the beginning consisted of antiquarians and a lawyer , got together and defined the main issues very quickly . Together with representatives of heritage conservation here in Germany and the German Archaeological Institute with its foreign perspective , we soon agreed on the topics we should address as a matter of priority , from the emergency protection of looted excava-

How did the working group come into being , and what disciplines do the members come from ? Hermann Parzinger : When the working group was set up , we were all affected by the Islamist-motivated cultural destruction in the Middle East and in Mali . We wanted to focus on archaeological cultural heritage while also shining a light on as many aspects of the topic as possible . Of course , most members of the working group are archaeologists and antiquartions and illegal trade in antiquities to the role of minor disciplines , whose expertise is indispensable for issues of cultural preservation . Then the topics developed and broadened organically , as in the case of underwater archaeology in the North and Baltic Seas , which led to a discussion paper .

The discussion paper “ Traces under Water ” from 2019 has resonated not only with experts in the field but also with the media . In your opinion what are the most important insights from the paper ? Parzinger : It is significant that this publication really points out the importance of underwater cultural heritage . This concerns entire settlement landscapes from the Mesolithic period , which have sunk