BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A team of Archeological officials from Leidel University of the Netherlands is scheduled to visit St. Kitts and Nevis early next year.
According to the Director of Maritime and Civil Aviation Affairs, McClean Hobson, ratifying the UNESCO Under Water Cultural Heritage Convention is only one step at protecting and preserving cultural heritage in the Federation. He explained that some of the more challenging aspects are building capacity for this area and enforcement of regulations to protect the Federation’s underwater artifacts.
“To meet these challenges,” Hobson said, “significant effort is being placed on partnering with institutions that have well-established archeological programmes. In this respect, a team of Archeological Officials from Leidel University of the Netherlands is expected to visit St. Kitts and Nevis on January 24, 2010”.
Hobson noted that the purpose of the visit is to discuss in more detail a partnership arrangement with the University for the development of Archeology in St. Kitts and Nevis.
He declared that as focal point, his interest would be in a Memorandum of Understanding with the University for joint Archaeological investigations, information exchange and education of local students, among other areas.
Hobson also informed that the intended visit was initiated following discussions with Corinne Hofman, who is a Professor of Caribbean Archaeology and also Chair of Education of Archaeology at the Leiden University.
