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Baltic shipwreck mapping
Latvian archaeologists and National Heritage Administration specialist Kaspars Markus Moll say there may be at least a thousand sunken ships in the Latvian part of the Baltic Sea, while Swedish researchers have identified about 17,000 sunken vessels across the region.
“According to their estimates, around 100,000 shipwrecks may have occurred in the Baltic Sea overall”
Inbox.eu reports that the Baltic Sea’s underwater finds are unusually well preserved because cold, dark, brackish and oxygen-poor waters can protect wooden remains for centuries, and that around 100,000 shipwrecks may have occurred in the Baltic Sea overall.
The Times of India adds that only about 200 ancient shipwrecks have been identified in Latvian maritime waters so far, even though many others are known only from historical records.
Inbox.eu says that in practice, significantly fewer wrecks are known, and that currently about 200 ancient shipwrecks have been identified in Latvia’s maritime waters with information on roughly the same number available.
Lake Indzers finds
Inbox.eu says that about two weeks ago underwater archaeological research was conducted for the first time in Latvia on Lake Indzers using full archaeological methodology, as part of a project by the Latvian Academy of Culture.
The same source reports that various items approximately 1,500 years old were discovered underwater and that they have preserved significantly better than similar finds on land.
The Times of India describes Latvia’s August 2026 underwater archaeological excavations at Lake Indzers, where divers surveyed the lakebed at a depth of about 2.5 metres and recovered important pottery fragments.
It also says evidence of ancient human activity extended around 12 metres from the island’s shore, and that a bone fishing spear discovered on the lakebed may date to the Middle or Late Mesolithic, between the 9th and 6th millennia BC.
Underwater heritage funding
Inbox.eu says the International Day of Underwater Cultural Heritage is celebrated on August 21, and that on the same day it will mark 25 years since the adoption of the international convention on the protection of underwater cultural heritage, which Latvia has not yet ratified.
“Latvia has not yet ratified”
The source adds that specialists say ratifying the convention could open opportunities for attracting international funding for the study and preservation of underwater cultural heritage.
Inbox.eu also notes that there is a lack of specialists in underwater archaeology for their accounting and study, and that the most extensive research of the Baltic Sea has been conducted by Swedish scientists.
In parallel, the Times of India frames the underwater archive as offering clues about travel, trade, warfare, technology and everyday life that may have disappeared almost completely from the land, with human stories hidden below.