01800nas a2200205 4500000000100000000000100001008004100002653003300043653001200076653001800088653001500106653001800121100002300139245006600162856011800228300001200346490000700358520120900365022002001574 2022 d10aunderwater cultural heritage10arespect10asacred places10ashipwrecks10awatery graves1 aElena Perez-Alvaro00aShipwrecks and graves: Their treatment as intangible heritage uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85135101328&partnerID=40&md5=6f57aed791c65e59f6d589cb6fcc3f2a a183-1950 v173 aThe treatment and management of human remains in land archaeology has been a debated topic. However, in the field of underwater cultural heritage, the references are almost non-existent. The importance of the topic has already been recognised, since some nations have established legal frameworks to protect those human remains. In addition, the term is included in the definition of ‘underwater cultural heritage’ under the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UNESCO 2001). However, the ethical dilemmas around the topic have not been discussed, and protocols for the management of shipwrecks with or without human remains have not been established. This article discusses the management of human remains as part of an underwater cultural heritage site and the ethical issues that this complicated heritage presents at an international level. In this regard, it looks both at those shipwrecks that still preserve human remains and those where the remains have disappeared but were once there. It also introduces three concepts, applied for the first time to human remains, based on a variety of cultural attitudes: absent, invisible and intangible heritage. a19753586 (ISSN)