1st TPM of the U-Mar Project in Selinunte, Sicily - March 2022

The I Transnational Meeting of the “U-Mar – Enhancing underwater archaeology to make it an innovative tool for developing sustainable & creative tourism” project was held in Selinunte, Sicily on March 30th, 2022.

The general aim of the project U-Mar is to develop the knowledge and the enhancement of heritage related to underwater archaeology, through the following specific objectives:

1. Training professional figures with specific skills in underwater archaeology, how to valorise it and how to manage these cultural sites.
2. Developing sustainable and environmentally friendly tourism around underwater archaeology, improving the tourist-cultural offer, and expanding the reference target of users.
3. Provide guidelines for organizations that want to develop strategies for enhancing the underwater archaeological heritage, with different possibilities of application depending on the context and with a particular focus on the creation of underwater archaeological itineraries, with their specific heritage and on the professional’s skills required.
4. Increase knowledge of the underwater archaeological heritage and the importance of its conservation and enhancement, not only by tourists, but above all by young people and local communities living in those territories.

The project is aimed at three project results:

1. to create a new model of an innovative underwater archaeology course for culture professionals and students of archaeology (to be implemented by ICUA Zadar),
2. to establish an e-learning platform (to be implemented by CEI-MAR Cadiz),
3. to launch underwater archaeology interpretation centres in the partner countries (to be implemented by The Phoenicians’ Route). The project concept is to engage and train underwater archaeology specialists, to achieve a high-quality transfer of knowledge between the partner institutions, and to develop ecologically aware tourism associated with underwater cultural heritage.

In addition to the Phoenicians’ Route, lead partner of the project, six other project partners are:

• Superintendence of the Sea – Sicilian Region (Italy)
• International Centre for Underwater Archaeology in Zadar (Croatia)
• CEI·MAR Foundation (Spain)
• Pafos Regional Board of Tourism (Cyprus)
• ACIF – Industrial and Commercial Association of Funchal – Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Madeira (Portugal)
• Argo – Progettare l’Europa (Italy)

In the course of the meeting, The Phoenician’s Route and Argo presented an overall overview of the project and its outcomes and opened a discussion on the achievement of the Project Result 1 – The new and innovative course on underwater archaeological sites for cultural operators, with ICUA Zadar as the lead partner of this phase. ICUA Zadar representatives Mladen Pešić and Maja Kaleb gave a presentation about the courses provided by ICUA Zadar that cover underwater archaeology and the conservation and restoration of archaeological artefacts recovered from underwater environments. After establishing the initial goals and deadlines for the start of the Project Result 1 development, the partners discussed the achievements of the upcoming Transnational Training for Trainers meeting, which will be held

The project will last for 24 months, until January 9, 2024, and can count on the involvement of partners of great value.

Detailed information about the U-Mar project is available on the Internet site of The Phoenicians’ Route association.

The project, led by the Phoenicians’ Route – Cultural Route of the Council of Europe, is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.