Diving into history

By Lishan Chang - Taiwan Today

Readers might be surprised to learn that Taiwan has underwater archaeological treasures to rival the remains of the “Titanic,” wrecks of Spanish treasure galleons in the Caribbean and even the lost city of Atlantis, said by Plato to have sunk into the ocean “in a single day and night of misfortune.” 

The place to go to find out about these treasures is “Diving into History,” the island’s first-ever underwater archaeology exhibition, put together by the Executive Yuan’s Council for Cultural Affairs, now at Bali Township’s Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology in Taipei County until Dec. 13.

As defined by the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, underwater archaeology studies sites, artifacts and human remains which have been submerged in the ocean, lakes or rivers for at least 100 years.

UNESCO regards “archaeological sites located under water as important sources of historic information” because these locations, “due to the lack of oxygen, contain material that is lost on comparable sites on dry land.”

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