Things are changing fast along the Indian Ocean coastline in terms of (a) destruction of the ?old? in order to give place to the ?new? under various developmental plans initiated by governments of the Indian Ocean Rim countries, (b) growing popularity of Marine Tourism leading to the creation of big hotels along the coasts, (c) commercial ports being built on heritage shores. But there is a lack of concerted efforts on the part of the archaeological community in terms of voicing concern for preserving coastal and maritime heritage. Perspective Archaeological Plans for the coming 20 years are absent in many Indian Ocean rim countries. We say ?Culture? belongs to all but what is this ?all?? Is it not ?global?? There are several international organisations of archaeologists. What moral force can all these organisations exert on the political bosses of the rim countries to save the past for the future? How to go about it?
Certain amount of archaeological work is going on along the coast and also in the waterways in most of the rim countries. Writing scientific reports on excavations takes considerable periods of time, often years. However, by that time approaches change, view-points change, new technologies appear and we are forced to change our write-ups. It has, therefore, been realised globally that fully illustrated Annual Preliminary Reports on our field-work is the only answer. Some scholars uplink them in websites. That is good but can it replace the print-media? How much comfortable do we feel with the computer screen before us? And for how long can we sit before it? If the screen has not been able to replace ?newspapers? because you can read them as, when and where you please; how can printed journals be replaced by the screen? Can the down-loaded material inspire us academically as much as the beautifully printed pages of an academic journal?
This journal is, therefore, the outcome of this realisation. It is, of course primarily geared to fulfill the deeper need for knowledge. But it can do that only when contributions from fresh fieldwork and researches on original data are received. This year we received some suggestions from our colleagues. A couple of them are being implemented from this very issue. For example, the creation of an Advisory/Consultative Committee with members chosen globally who will own this journal mentally and morally and actively support it by mobilizing academic contributions and also promoting its circulation. To date we have received the consent of nine of the eleven scholars we had written to. Their names occur at the appropriate place on the copyright page. We are sure that during the current year some more will join us and help us make this journal a ?must? for every researcher and interested reader looking for new archaeological information from the earth and below the seas.
The other suggestion concerns the creation of a data-base for all to share through this journal. A format has been prepared. A lot of thinking went into shaping it in the present form. Still there is ample scope for improvement; even modification. We are open to all fresh suggestions. After all, our efforts are participatory, hence collective. The usefulness of the journal is our primary goal. Will you, therefore, kindly communicate to us your observations.
Lastly, technology is power. Experiments break new grounds. The more refined a tool the better are the result. Accuracy is a part of every innovation. And so also the retrieval of a variety of information from every grain of sand, silt and debris we unearth at a given site. Powerful and user friendly softwares in the market make our job easy as well as detailed and comprehensive. Sophisticated surface and sub-surface reconnaissance techniques and technologies are being developed in the earth sciences. Dating techniques are being refined. If you know them why not share this knowledge with others through our pages? We may even start a new section for this.
We are also open to the idea of post-colonial and contemporary archaeology which would include developments in the Indian Ocean during the past 300 years. The article on Mauritus in this journal belongs to this category.
