{"id":135367,"date":"2026-08-20T15:26:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T19:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/search-for-columbus-ships-in-dr-enters-decisive-phase-for-2027\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T15:26:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T19:26:25","slug":"search-for-columbus-ships-in-dr-enters-decisive-phase-for-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/national\/search-for-columbus-ships-in-dr-enters-decisive-phase-for-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"Search for Columbus&#8217; ships in DR enters decisive phase for 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">La Isabela: Archaeological mission in the Dominican Republic enters a crucial phase<\/h2>\n\n<p>The search for historic shipwrecks off the coast of La Isabela, in the Dominican Republic, is preparing for its final stage in 2027. This project, which has the collaboration of UNESCO, Spain, and the Dominican authorities, seeks to unearth the secrets of the first permanent Spanish settlement in America, established after Christopher Columbus&#8217;s second voyage in 1493.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Findings under the sea and expectations<\/h3>\n\n<p>Following the underwater expeditions carried out in 2024 and 2026, the technical team has identified more than 40 anomalies on the seabed. Alejandro Gum\u00e1 Ruiz, a UNESCO Culture officer, explained that these irregularities could be remains of great historical value, although their exact nature can only be confirmed through archaeological excavations scheduled for the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">There are more than 40 underwater anomalies, which are irregularities on the seabed that may or may not be due to the presence of underwater cultural heritage, which can only be determined in the excavation phase.<\/p>\n<cite>Alejandro Gum\u00e1 Ruiz, UNESCO Culture Officer.<\/cite>\n\n\n<p>The joint commission to be held at the beginning of 2027 will be decisive in securing the necessary funding to allow the excavations to move forward. It is expected that the findings will not only shed light on the Columbus period, but also on the rich maritime activity of the 16th to 18th centuries.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Preservation and World Heritage candidacy<\/h3>\n\n<p>The project is governed by the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which prioritizes the conservation of findings in their original environment (in situ). According to the expert, extracting these remains from the sea can damage them, which is why the focus is on dissemination strategies, such as responsible diving and public education.<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>International collaboration:<\/strong> Specialists from institutions in Mexico, Argentina, Spain, and the United States are working together at the site.<\/li><li><strong>Boosting the candidacy:<\/strong> Success in the 2027 phase would significantly strengthen La Isabela&#8217;s bid to become the second UNESCO World Heritage site in the Dominican Republic.<\/li><li><strong>Climate threat:<\/strong> Climate change, with ocean acidification and extreme weather events, represents a constant challenge for the protection of these historical remains.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p>Finally, this effort also seeks to raise awareness among nations about the urgency of protecting their heritage against the threat of treasure hunters, reaffirming that underwater remains function as an essential chronicle of human history.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>La Isabela: Archaeological mission in the Dominican Republic enters a crucial phase The search for historic shipwrecks off the coast of La Isabela, in the Dominican Republic, is preparing for its final stage in 2027. This project, which has the collaboration of UNESCO, Spain, and the Dominican authorities, seeks to unearth the secrets of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12809],"tags":[14042,14043,14044,14045],"class_list":{"0":"post-135367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"tag-archaeology","9":"tag-la-isabela","10":"tag-shipwrecks","11":"tag-unesco"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}