The new underwater cultural relics protection regulations are more down-to-earth and more operational
On March 2, the largest and most well-preserved wooden shipwreck discovered by underwater archaeology in my country, the "Yangtze River Mouth No. 2" ancient ship officially began to salvage.
The picture shows some cultural relics out of the ancient ship "Yangtze River Estuary No. 2" (file photo).
Xinhua News Agency (Photo courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics)
The revised Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Relics (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) will come into force on April 1.
Compared with the regulations promulgated and implemented in 1989, it proceeded from reality, fully considered the particularity of underwater cultural relics protection work, improved relevant institutional measures in a targeted manner, solved outstanding problems in the practice of underwater cultural relics protection, and achieved harmony with cultural relics. The protection law and other laws, administrative regulations and relevant state regulations are linked.
On March 1, the relevant comrades of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage stated that the "Regulations" further clarified the relevant management system and law enforcement mechanism: clarifying the cultural relics administrative department of the State Council, the cultural relics administrative department of local people's governments, and the people above the county level. The duties and powers of other relevant government departments in the protection of underwater cultural relics.
The "Regulations" also made new regulations on the underwater protection zone system, which provided a clear basis for the delineation and announcement of underwater cultural relic protection zones in the future, and enhanced the operability.
The "Regulations" specifically increase the content of cultural relics protection, clarifying that any unit or individual has the obligation to protect underwater cultural relics in accordance with the law. If any unit or individual discovers suspected underwater cultural relics in any way, it should promptly report to the relevant cultural relics department, and have The right to report violations of regulations and endanger the safety of underwater cultural relics to the competent cultural relics department.
Cui Yong, a researcher at the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, has been doing underwater cultural relics archaeology for many years. He pointed out that the new version of the regulations is more grounded and operational.
He said that the new Article 8 of the "Regulations" specifies and details the behaviors that may endanger the safety of underwater cultural relics, including fishing and breeding.
Taking the ancient city of Junzhou under the Danjiangkou Reservoir in Hubei, the ancient city of Xuchang in Dongping Lake in Shandong, and the Qingshui Shiqiao protection project as examples, during the underwater survey, there are still net fishing and cage aquaculture in these places.
Nets not only cause great damage to underwater cultural relics, but also pose a huge threat to the safety of underwater archaeologists.
After the protected area was designated, the protected area gradually cleaned up the cages while prohibiting fishing according to the protection needs, which cleared the obstacles for the protection of underwater cultural relics.
The newly added Article 13 of the "Regulations", for the first time, incorporates the archaeological water-related part into the basic construction. Cui Yong believes that it is of great significance.
Due to the large sea area and long coastline in my country, the number of capital construction projects wading in water is increasing, and the probability of discovering underwater cultural relics during the construction process is very high.
From the perspective of marine engineering, the economic cost of geophysical surveys can be ignored compared with the total amount of the project, but from the perspective of underwater cultural heritage protection, if you can ride on the ride of large-scale infrastructure, it is equivalent to starting an area of Underwater archaeological survey work.
Such survey results are similar to the pre-archaeological results of field infrastructure archaeological projects, which can effectively prevent underwater cultural relics from being damaged by large-scale capital construction projects, and are of great value.
Zhou Gangzhi, a distinguished professor of Hunan Normal University and executive director of the Center for Chinese Cultural Law of Central South University, is concerned that the Regulations consolidate protection obligations and consolidate the management foundation.
He said that in recent years, my country has made positive progress in the protection of underwater cultural relics and the construction of research organizations.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage has established an underwater cultural heritage protection center, and Shandong, Hubei and Guangdong have strengthened the construction of provincial-level underwater cultural heritage protection institutions.
However, due to the complex underwater environment, the investigation, salvage and protection of cultural relics are highly specialized, requiring close cooperation between the cultural relics authority and the public security, maritime police, transportation, water conservancy and other departments.
Therefore, the "Regulations" clearly stipulate that the competent cultural relics authorities, public security organs, and maritime law enforcement agencies shall carry out the law enforcement work on the protection of underwater cultural relics according to the division of responsibilities, and strengthen law enforcement cooperation; Communication and coordination with relevant departments to share information on the enforcement of underwater cultural relics.
In order to strengthen the protection, management and research of underwater cultural relics, the relevant departments of the people's governments at all levels also need to actively publicize the legal concept of underwater cultural relics protection, establish a communication and coordination mechanism for the protection and management of underwater cultural relics, and form "the leadership of the party committee, the government responsible, and the department Collaboration and social participation" underwater cultural relics work pattern.
◎Reporter Zhang Gailun