Submarine Archaeology

In 1990, the group of submarine archaeology started to work with Jurmala City Museum, which soon signed cooperation agreement with Tallinn Sea Museum and Stockholm University. In subsequent years, first studies of ship wreckage were madeand a number of Latvian lakes were examined.

1997 was important in history of submarine archaeology in Latvia. The first 5 newly found ship wreckage acquired the status of cultural monuments. In the same year, representatives of Latvia participated in the First Conference of Baltic Sea Marine Archaeology in Sweden, as well as the Symposium of Submarine Archaeology in Poland. Since 1998, joint underwater research and examination have been made under international projects, in cooperation with Swedish ships.

Throughout the decade in 135 expeditions, a total of 14 wrecked ship frames were studied and examined, information was collected on more than 60 wreckage and a few hundreds of sunk ships.

In order to implement the program of further research, a Centre of Submarine Archaeology has been established in Jurmala City Museum to coordinate all submarine archaeology in Latvia. A legal mechanism for preservation and protection of monuments of submarine archaeology has been developed in cooperation with the State Inspection for Protection of Cultural Monuments.