Dan Europe in KAŞ with SAD Young Archaeopark Project

Kaş is one of the most significant sites in Turkey in terms of its natural, historical and cultural heritage. In accordance with its rich archaeological potential, Kaş is well known as for Uluburun, one of the oldest shipwrecks in maritime history. In 2006, the Underwater Research Society (SAD) in coordination with its representative office in Kaş, constructed a training site called “Kaş Archaeopark”.

The Archaeopark site was composed of the reanimation of Uluburun shipwreck and its cargo site. Along with the progression of this foundation project, a following project had been designed and developed in 2010. “Young Archaeopark Project” that was supported by European Commission Youth Initiatives programme, aimed to improve historical and environmental awareness of the local people by introducing the concepts of cultural heritage both above and underwater. In order to achieve this aim, a leading project team was formed of 20 participants of university students from Turkey and Germany. For the education of both young scientist candidates and local people, within the project, “Erkut Arcak Archaeological Conferences” had been organized.

Including DAN Europe, fourteen scientists from Turkey, Germany, USA and England, had presented papers in the series of lectures. Throughout these lectures, the participants and the local audience were informed and gained awareness on underwater cultural heritage of Kaş. DAN Europe was one of the main sponsors of the project, and held the role of informing people about the latest researches on diving safety. In this context Asst. Prof. Dr. Murat Egi presented a lecture with the topic “DAN Europe Current Research on Diving & Risk Assessment in Sports Diving”.

Following the conferences, the application of this significant subject matter was conducted by the DAN diving safety officers throughout the project. After all, the results of the 3 week diving survey, with all the information gathered, was stored in digital media and it’s still being presented in the project web site www.sanalarkeopark.org.tr. Project executed by Underwater Researches Association and DEGUWA (www.sad.org.tr) (www.deguwa.org).