OceanExpert - A Directory of Marine and Freshwater Professionals

OceanExpert ID : 21969

Archäologisches Landesamt Schleswig-Holstein
ALSH

(State Archaeology Department of Schleswig-Holstein)

Address

Brockdorff-Rantzau-Str. 70
24837 Schleswig
Germany

Type

Government

Email

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Telephone

+49 4621 3870

Fax

+49 4621 38755

Website

https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Landesregierung/ALSH/alsh_node.html

Activities

The State Archaeology Department of Schleswig-Holstein (ALSH) is the responsible authority for cultural heritage in the state's territorial waters in both the North Sea and Baltic Sea. This includes all sites of human activity, from inundated prehistoric settlements to shipwrecks of the World Wars. All archaeological sites on land and under water are protected by the Schleswig-Holstein heritage proection act, which includes undiscovered sites according to the ipsa lege principle. Due to the sovereignty in cultural politics ("Kulturhoheit der Länder") of the German federal states, there is no national authority responsible for the protection of the underwater cultural heritage, and thus no competent authority for the German EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone), unless EIA (environmental impact assessments) are required, which stipulate the involvement of the cultural impact according to law. In this case, the adjoining federal state's competent archaeology authority is mandated with an EIA for a predefined planning corridor, like the Fehmarn-Belt-Fixed Link. Anomalies were investigated by scientific divers on behalf of the ALSH (for the Schleswig-Holstein/German side) in collaboration with the Viking Ship Museum (for the Danish side). This also involved a small-scale investigation of the Danish orlog-ship LINDORMEN, which sank 1644 in the Battle of Fehmarn. As it was not immediately in the planning corridor, preventive measures for an in situ preservation were taken.

The ALSH has no dedicated unit to carry out maritime or underwater archaeology and relies heavily on volunteer involvement, most notably AMLA, an informal group of archaeologists, students and scientific divers from the University of Kiel. Settlement sites and shipwrecks in the intertidal zone of the North Sea are occasionally investigated by the ALSH when locals report new findings.

In 2017-2020, the ALSH was the lead partner of the Interreg-funded BalticRIM Project (acronym for: Baltic Sea Region Integrated Maritime Cultural Heritage Management), which sought to implement the European Commission's directive on maritime spatial planning (Directive 2014/89/EU) in terms of the Baltic Sea's underwater cultural heritage.

In general, the underwater cultural heritage of Schleswig-Holstein has a great potential for research. It includes high profile sites like the harbour of the Viking Age settlement of Hedeby (a UNESCO World Heritage site) with a jetty structure and four Viking Age shipwrecks. Only 3% of the harbour area have been excavated yet. The Schlei inlet is a natural archive for shipwrecks and settlement structures from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages due to the low salinity and thus the absence of marine borers. In the North Frisian Wadden Sea (North Sea), archaeological remains of medieval settlements like Rungholt (sometimes described as the "Atlantis of the North", lost in the storm tide of 1362) and postmedieval and early modern shipwrecks are discovered frequently due to coastal erosion, which treatens the underwater and maritime cultural heritage.

Associated Experts

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Daniel ZWICK
Maritime Archaeologist