ABSTRACT
In this chapter we will see how the conduct of maritime archaeological activities, including searching for, investigating, and recovering shipwrecks, artefacts and other underwater cultural heritage, reveals—or transforms—the history of the South China Sea. Those who undertake these activities have the ability to control that history, deciding what should be investigated, where activities should take place and what activities should be undertaken—such as recovery and conservation—allowing natural and man-made forces to take its inevitable toll on the underwater cultural heritage. Control over maritime archaeology in the South China Sea thus has a direct impact on the history that is revealed through these activities. In addition, China’s current approach to its underwater cultural heritage reveals a complex relationship between claims of sovereignty over islands and maritime territory and the basis of the claim on some form of historical right.
