FIELD-TESTING INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS IN NORTHERN CYPRUS: THE 2009 KARPAZ MARITIME HERITAGE SURVEY

The 2008 and 2009 expeditions of the Karpaz Maritime Heritage Survey along the southern shore of the Karpaz Peninsula, Cyprus, were opportunities to re-start the documentation of the maritime cultural resources along the northern-Cypriot coastline after a hiatus of over three decades, and an effort to aid local efforts to manage this resource. In light of the ongoing application of the UNESCO 1954 Hague Convention and the 1999 Second Protocol in northern Cyprus, both of which recommend what, and how, archaeological activity may proceed in regions considered by the United Nations to be occupied territory, this was also a rare opportunity to do two things. First, to develop underwater survey methodologies that operate within the UNESCO guidelines and, second, to test the UNESCO guidelines in the field. As will be demonstrated, the efficacy of the UNESCO mechanisms diminishes over time and, particularly in northern Cyprus, within a political dynamic for which they were not intended.