In September 2022, the prestigious international publishing house Thames & Hudson contacted José Antonio Moya, head of communications for the Bou Ferrer Wreck Project, to request permission to use a photograph of the wreck for the cover of a publication. The photograph, whose author is José Antonio Moya himself, currently director of the University of Alicante's University Headquarters in La Vila Joiosa, was taken during a guided tour for sport divers on a day of extraordinary visibility in 2017, and has already become the most popular and most used image of the wreck. The Bou Ferrer project is led by the Generalitat Valenciana and involves the Vila Joiosa Town Council, the University of Alicante and the Club Náutico de la Vila.
The surprise was that the book in question was no more and no less than the 5th edition of the most famous Archaeology manual, the bedside book of all students, teachers and professionals of this science: Archaeology Essentials: Theories, methods, practice. Every new archaeologist has had to read and consult it repeatedly during his or her years of university training since 1991.
Last May, the publisher confirmed the launch of the publication in the United States. In this way, the Bou Ferrer wreck and La Vila Joiosa acquire scientific prominence on an international scale, and a Spanish site, specifically in the Valencian Community, thus becomes an iconic image for new generations of archaeology professionals in any country in the world.
This cover only further increases the prestige of Bou Ferrer, one of the most outstanding sites in the international arena, after its recognition by UNESCO in 2017 as one of the first seven sites in its World Catalogue of Best Practices of Underwater Cultural Heritage (https://en.unesco.org/underwater-heritage/best-practices), renewed in 2021; or its inclusion by the international TV channel National Geographic Channel in the chapter that opened the second season (2020) of the famous series Drain the Oceans (https://fb.watch/lylCAqPMLd/), also broadcast worldwide.