The NAS – DEGUWA Partnership is as strong as ever
Report by NAS Education Officer Peter Knott

The Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Unterwasserarchäologie e.V. (DEGUWA) was one of the Nautical Archaeology Society’s (NAS) first International Training Partners and several decades later these two organisations are still working together to promote and protect underwater archaeology.

This was recently demonstrated at the DEGUWA conference ‘In Poseidon’s Realm XXIV’ held in Bodrum Turkey in April 2019 when NAS ran a tutor information session about their International Education Programme. This presentation, by the NAS’s Education Officer Peta Knott, was well attended and half the audience comprised enthusiastic DEGUWA members and tutors. They were all keen to hear about the recently revised Education Programme in the United Kingdom to see if it would be of use to their organisation. Since first becoming International Training Partners, DEGUWA have been teaching interested divers a German version of the NAS syllabus. These recreational divers have been trained in practical archaeological skills that allow them to carefully record underwater sites paired with a theoretical understanding of why it is important that these wrecks are preserved. Without these citizen scientists, it would not be possible to investigate and protect the vast number of underwater sites that are part of all our heritage.

Into the future, it looks like these underwater sites are in good hands, with DEGUWA tutors keen to update their training programme and make it available to as many divers as possible. And so the DEGUWA – NAS partnership will continue as they work together to provide quality archaeological training for divers and opportunities for them to record and protect our collective underwater cultural heritage.