Indonesia shipwreck treasure hunting has attracted the attention of both amateur and professional commercial hunters since years ago. It is such irony when the sunken wealth can be much beneficial to academic and historical studies. However, the tough competition among of those who have money wins the chance to excavate the underwater treasure.
Indonesia is an [link:61]archipelago[/link] country. It lies between two continents i.e. Asia and Australia, and also two oceans, i.e. Pacific and Indian. This geographical location makes the country at strategic position where main international trade traffic occurs, even since the ancient times. Due 2/3 portion of its territory are water, people at that time commonly travelled by ships. It does make sense then if a lot of shipwrecks found in Indonesian [link:29]water[/link]s, containing valuable ancient goods. The value is able to be seen from two aspects, history and economy.goindonet, go indonesia, [link:52]complete indonesia tourism info[/link]
Based on the data from the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries, Indonesia shipwreck treasure hunting locations are spread roughly at 700 to 800 spots. About 463 locations have been positively identified. The origins of those sunken ships are varied. They were usually from china, Asian countries and European countries especially Dutch, Spain, England and France. Commonly, they are found close to the main route of traffic or harbor at that time. Those shipwrecks are the original proofs of maritime inter-connection, migrations, international relations and globalizations in past time. It is no wonder if many of the Indonesia shipwreck treasure hunting experts are the professionals in history and archaeology field.
On the other hand, the valuable goods buried with the sunken ships underwater become potential wealth source. More and more modern people get interested to be ancient stuff collectors. They exchange the antique goods for high prices. Many of them are even willing to dive to the deep blue sea to discover the stuff which has commercial value such as gold, ceramics, gems, silver, diamond, statues and figurines. That is why a number of Indonesia shipwreck treasure hunting spots become quite attractive for the professional hunters to start their [link:68]adventure[/link]. They can even easily find investors, unlike archeologists who need hard effort just to get their researches being funded.
UNESCO convention has outlawed the commercial trade of underwater heritage since 2001. However, the government of Indonesia itself has not release its ratification. They still let a licensed company to excavate any content of shipwrecks commercially with 50/50 sharing agreement. Before the process of Indonesia shipwreck treasure huntingcan be started, the company has to apply for the licenses written in Bahasa Indonesia.