Photos of Korea's First Underwater Excavation 'Sinan Ship' to Be Released Online

National Maritime Heritage Research Institute Signs MOU with Korea Culture Information Service Agency
Digital Conversion of Han Seok-hong's Shinanseon Artifact Photographs
Over 4,000 Audiovisual Records to Be Made Public Online Next Year

Photographs of Shinanseon artifacts taken by cultural heritage specialist photographer Han Seok-hong (1940?2015) will be available online.

Photographic records of Sinan Ship donated by the family of the late writer Han Seok-hong

The National Maritime Heritage Research Institute announced on the 16th that it will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korea Culture Information Service Agency for a public domain digital conversion project. The collaboration aims to digitize materials related to Shinanseon in time for next year, marking the 50th anniversary of underwater archaeology in Korea.

Shinanseon is a merchant ship that sank off the coast of Sinan in 1323 while traveling from the Yuan Dynasty in China to Japan. Excavations were conducted from 1976 to 1984, uncovering the shipwreck and over 27,000 artifacts. It was Korea’s first underwater excavation and is considered the beginning of underwater archaeology. From 1981 to 1985, Han was responsible for photographing artifacts for the catalog "Shinan Underwater Artifacts," published by the Cultural Heritage Administration of the Ministry of Culture and Public Information (now the Cultural Heritage Administration).

The institute will provide more than 4,000 audiovisual records related to the underwater excavation, preservation, and restoration of Shinanseon, including 765 original films donated by Han Seok-hong’s family. The Korea Culture Information Service Agency will digitize and preserve these materials. An institute official stated, "We plan to complete the digital conversion and database (DB) construction by the end of this year and open the records to the public online early next year."