How to protect an outstanding shipwreck site?
In summer 2018, an outstanding shipwreck site was discovered in the waters of the island of Pag. It consists in several hundreds of amphorae of Lamboglia 2 type from the 1st c. BC, which lie in the original position as in the ship hold, reflecting the outline of the sunken ship. The site also contains come pottery items from the ship’s galley, and the lead anchor stock bearing the inscription STRATON, indicating the probable owner of the misfortunate vessel.
The first well-preserved sites were discovered in the waters of Lastovo Island at the end of the 1980s, and since then their number grew to eight. Seven sites, located at the islands of Rab, Pag, Žirje, Lastovo (2), Mljet and Supetar in front of Cavtat, are protected with the iron cages, which through time demonstrated their advantages and limitations. The recent negative experiences on the argument led to the conclusion that some other solutions should be experimented for the needs of the in situ protection of non looted shipwreck sites.
The newly discovered site at the island of Pag served as a hint for attempting to find the alternative solution. Up to now a system composed of a 360 degrees fieldview camera for surface survey, and two PTZ cameras for underwater survey was suggested, and should be implemented next year. The paper aims at discussing the problem and challenging the professional audience to propose alternative solutions.