Shipwreck Archaeology Research Articles

6 Shipwreck archaeology in the past 10 years

This paper reviews the trends, topics, and research directions in shipwreck archaeology over the past decade. As archaeology increasingly embraces advances in technological methods that can aid our research, the so-called ‘digital turn’, it behoves maritime archaeologists, and archaeologists more broadly, to consider how collaborative utilization of specialized fields including biomolecular archaeology, geophysics, and contemporary philosophy have spurred on a rapid modernization of our field in recent times. Archaeological research, both terrestrial and underwater, has long been a collaborative discipline. However, we argue here that difficulties in working underwater have encouraged maritime and underwater archaeologists to embrace technological developments at a rapid pace. An explicit theoretical framework and the incorporation of contemporary philosophy in the field of underwater archaeology was, until recently, largely lacking in the discipline’s discourse. The incorporation and advancement of adjacent disciplines within the field of underwater archaeology mark the most relevant changes within the shifting tides of shipwreck research.

Robert J. Walker: The History and Archaeology of a U.S. Coast Survey Steamship

Robert J. Walker: The History and Archaeology of a U.S. Coast Survey Steamship

A LIVING SHIPWRECK: An integrated three-dimensional analysis for the understanding of site formation processes in archaeological shipwreck sites

Since the birth of maritime archaeology in the mid-twentieth century, shipwreck archaeology has occupied a predominant role in the research undertaken in the field. Shipwreck sites have enabled further understanding of shipbuilding technologies and traditions, trade routes and traded goods, as well as life on board ancient vessels. Excavating, interpreting and preserving underwater sites is a complex endeavour that requires the analysis of multiple aspects, not least the environmental and biological characteristics affecting the site and the archaeological record. Wreck site formation processes (WSFPs) theory has been extensively employed in the approach to the excavation, documentation and interpretation of archaeological shipwreck sites, since its inception by Keith Muckelroy in 1978. WSFPs allow to better understand the preserved archaeological record and to clarify the course of events which have affected the shipwreck site in the full extent of its archaeological context. The present paper aims to present an innovative approach to better understanding these processes. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, the research has used three-dimensional recording and modelling techniques, together with archaeological and biological data, in order to model the amphora cargo mound of the 4th century BCE Mazotos shipwreck (Cyprus). 3D photogrammetric models of the shipwreck site have been paired with the 3D photogrammetric models of the lifted amphorae bearing sediment and biogenic horizons marks on their walls, in order to attempt a reconstruction of the environment and sedimentation processes at the site. While the combination of the 3D site and amphora reconstructions allow to create a model frozen in time (i.e. the time of excavation), the sedimentation and biological information adds to the model the fourth dimension (time), shedding light on the natural SFP dynamics that have affected the site. The sediment horizons and encrusting communities’ marks on the amphora surfaces account for dynamic processes of burial/exposure as well as artefacts dislocation, allowing to better characterize the initial model and better interpret the available archaeological record.

A Subcontinent in Enduring Ties with an Enclosed Ocean (c. 1000–1500 C.E.)

The waning influence of a Eurocentric paradigm paves the way for a close look at the maritime situation of the Indian subcontinent in the Indian Ocean during the first half of the second millennium C.E. Situated at the centre of the Indian Ocean, the two sea-boards of the subcontinent, along with Sri Lanka, appear in a wide variety of sources—literary (including letters of Jewish merchants), epigraphic, archaeological (including shipwreck archaeology)—as sites of vibrant commerce and cultural transactions across the sea. Nomenclatures and the historical geography of the Indian Ocean also form parts of the discussion. This essay pays particular attention to the exchange in daily necessity commodities, including plant products. A survey of ports dotting both the coasts of the subcontinent suggests the dynamic character of premier ports, shaped by their relation with subsidiary ports and their respective hinterlands and forelands. The paper highlights the role of seafaring groups, especially the ship-owners, active in and beyond South Asia. The available evidence irrefutably demonstrates that Indic people did take to sea during pre-modern times, thereby driving home the inefficacy of the taboos on seafaring in Sanskrit normative texts. To what extent the Indian Ocean experienced political contestations has been discussed in the light of a 14th century Latin Crusade tract. The advent of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean in 1498 did not signal the Age of Discoveries in the Indian Ocean in the light of seafaring in this maritime zone during 1000–1500 CE phase.

Gamming Chairs and Gimballed Beds: Seafaring Women on Board Nineteenth-Century Ships

During the nineteenth century, many captains’ wives from New England took up residence on the ships their husbands commanded. This article focuses on how those women at sea attempted to use material culture to domesticate their voyaging space. While writing in their journals, they referred to not only the small personal things such as books and knitting needles that they brought in their trunks, but also large items, built for and used by women, such as gamming chairs, deckhouses, parlor organs, sewing machines, and gimballed beds. Mary Brewster attempted to retreat from the ship’s officers in her small deckhouse, Annie Brassey slept in the gimballed bed, and Lucy Lord Howes disembarked in a gamming chair when captured by Confederates during the Civil War. Evidence of these artifacts found during shipwreck archaeology could be used to further what is known of the culture aboard ships on which women lived. Analysis of the material culture reveals how a captain’s wife domesticated space, altered her environment, and made a home on the ship for her family.

Medieval Shipwrecks from North Norway and their Contribution to Understanding Maritime Interaction and Trade

This article presents the remains of three medieval ships from North Norway. The sites are clustered near the Arctic Circle, two from the islands of Husøy (Træna) and Lovund in the Helgeland region, and a potential third wreck from the small lake Fiskvågvatn in Saltdal. Available information from the wrecks is presented to provide a basis for assessing their cultural contexts and relevance to medieval maritime activities, the dried-cod (stockfish) trade in particular. The circumstances surrounding their discovery and documentation also offer insights into the history of cultural heritage management and role of community engagement in northern Norwegian shipwreck archaeology.

Maritime and Shipwreck Archaeology in the Western Indian Ocean and Southern Red Sea: An Overview of Past and Current Research

This paper provides an overview of previous archaeological research on shipwrecks and the maritime archaeology of the Western Indian Ocean and southern Red Sea. It highlights the early pioneering research on the Santo Antonio de Tanna, wreck off Mombasa Island, before discussing more recent discoveries, surveys and excavations. Attention is drawn to the important distinction between ‘shipwreck’ and ‘maritime’ archaeology, and the need to develop integrated programmes aimed at investigating the diversity of the maritime heritage of these two regions. Particular attention is also drawn to the increased activity of treasure hunters and other threats to the underwater heritage of these regions, the need to sustain ongoing training and capacity building in maritime archaeology and for strengthening existing legislation.

Shipwreck Archaeology in Australia - Edited by Michael Nash

International Journal of Nautical ArchaeologyVolume 40, Issue 2 p. 467-468 Shipwreck Archaeology in Australia – Edited by Michael Nash JESSICA BERRY, JESSICA BERRY Shepherd's Bush, LondonSearch for more papers by this author JESSICA BERRY, JESSICA BERRY Shepherd's Bush, LondonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 03 August 2011 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2011.00326_24.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume40, Issue2September 2011Pages 467-468 RelatedInformation

Book Review: Shipwreck Archaeology in Australia

Book Review: Shipwreck Archaeology in Australia

Two Late Roman Wrecks from Southern Cyprus

Two scattered Late Roman shipwrecks were discovered in the course of underwater survey at Cape Zevgari and Avdimou Bay off the southern coast of Cyprus. Each was transporting a primary cargo contained in amphoras, in one case either local or from nearby Syria or Cilicia, and the other certainly from the southern Levantine coast. The two wrecks offer insight into regional maritime exchange networks within the socio-economic context of late antique commerce around the island. Both sites also contribute to a greater understanding of the utility of systematic shallow-water survey to shipwreck archaeology. © 2007 The Author

Global Markets, Local Practice: Ottoman-period Clay Pipes and Smoking Paraphernalia from the Red Sea Shipwreck at Sadana Island, Egypt

Shipwreck archaeology provides unique evidence for trade, commercial relationships, and the day-to-day existence of occupational communities defined by residence and employment within the industrial space aboard a ship. These concerns are addressed particularly well by finds of utilitarian items such as a small assemblage of 21 clay pipes and three other smoking-related artifacts recently excavated from the ca. 1765 Sadana Island ship which sank at anchor while loaded with coffee, porcelain, qulal, and other goods. Analysis of the assemblage specifically contributes to questions of chronology and typology and presents new evidence for regionalism, style, and the impact of far-reaching trade routes on markets with a global perspective.

Boats are for boys: queering maritime archaeology

From the masculine struggles of ancient and historic seafaring to the demands and Boys' Own, action man ethos of shipwreck archaeology, maritime archaeology remains entrenched in the Western, androcentric, dualistic, heteronormative paradigm. Just as boat-building, sailing, fishing, trading, exploring and colonizing are prescribed as male activities (and male according to modern, Western constructs), maritime archaeology remains masculine in its approach, techniques and interpretation. By failing to acknowledge this, maritime archaeologists are restricting their reconstructions of past maritime societies. Moreover, they are further maintaining the perception of maritime archaeology as having a minor, subsidiary role within the wider discipline of archaeology. Consequently, there is a need for more rigorous and reflexive archaeological interpretation, for the production of self-critical, social archaeologies and for the queering of maritime archaeology.

Shipwreck archaeology of the Lakshadweep Islands, west coast of India

Shipwreck archaeology of the Lakshadweep Islands, west coast of India

Shipwreck archaeology of the Lakshadweep Islands, west coast of India

Archaeological investigations in the Lakshadweep Islands have brought to light the presence of a large number of shipwrecks and the archival records have the details of some of these wrecks. Northern islands and reefs of Minicoy were the locations of shipwrecks prior to 1865, but the trend changed with the opening of the Suez Canal. Various organisations including the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, have focused on Minicoy, Byramgore, Suheli Par, and Bangaram Island for detailed exploration of shipwrecks, and the findings suggest that due to submerged coral reefs, atolls, and other shallow hazards a large number of ships were wrecked in Lakshadweep waters.

Vanguard of Empire: Ships of Exploration in the Age of Columbus by Roger C. Smith

TECHNOLOGYAND CULTURE Book Reviews 899 tension-resisting members. Courtenay discusses these at length and follows their murky but plausible dissemination in Early Christian churches and in the DarkAges and Carolingian eras. Romanesque roofs may preserve Roman memories, with their rows of identical tied trusses, without ridge beams or any transverse bracing other than the batten boards supporting the cladding. The Scandinavian development of lateral bracing and division into bays with principal and common rafters remains somewhat enigmatic in this account, as does their influence on Gothic timber frames. Courtenay’s summary of her research, in collabo­ ration with Mark, on the great hammer beam truss by Hugh Herland at Westminster Hall in London, is the climax of this chapter. Renaissance innovations are the fully triangulated trusses ofVasari and Palladio, and Philibert de l’Orme’s laminated wooden arches, both executed and published by the new Renaissance breed of scholar-practitioners. Com­ pared to these, Wren’s famous tied frame for the Sheldonian Theater in Oxford is anachronistic, despite its unusual span and metal-fastened scarfjoints. The book, despite minor errors and omissions, is a very useful reference, summarizing much scholarship on historical structures. With some guidance, it could be a fine secondary textbook in a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. Sergio L. Sanabria Dr. Sanabria teaches in the Department ofArchitecture at Miami University. Vanguard ofEmpire: Ships ofExploration in theAge ofColumbus. By Roger C. Smith. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1993. Pp. xii+316; illustra­ tions, notes, appendixes, bibliography, indexes. $35.00. When one considers the history of technology, few inventions stand out as dramatically and significantly as the seagoing ship. Roger Smith’s Vanguard ofEmpire attempts to provide “an up to date perspective of the ways in which Iberian vessels of exploration were built, manned, armed, and provisioned” (p. vii). Although this objective has been sought before, Smith’s approach attempts to make greater use of newly discovered historical documents and the results of recent archaeological excavations of discovery-period shipwreck sites. Following a brief introduction in which the political, religious, economic, and cultural conditions leading up to the European Age of Discovery are cursorily reviewed, Smith identifies the Iberian maritime states of Spain and Portugal as the center of a nautical renaissance in oceangoing technology in the years between 1430 and 1530, and the caravel and the nao as the ship types most favored by the explorers. He then oudines the probable origins of these two vessel types and describes their general characteristics. The majority of the book is devoted to step-by-step descriptions of building caravels and naos and 900 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGYAND CULTURE equipping them for exploratory voyaging. Throughout the narrative Smith includes the Spanish or Portuguese equivalent for virtually every nautical term mentioned. Originally Smith’s Ph.D. dissertation for the Department of History at Texas A&M University, Vanguard ofEmpireis the latest addition to a voluminous body of literature on European nautical technology in the 15th and 16th centuries. Much of the book is used to review and recapitulate this earlier literature and set the stage for new revelations in document research and shipwreck archaeology. Preeminent among the newly discovered documents is an inventory of equipment on board the caravel Santa Clara (Columbus’s Nina) in 1498. Discovered by Dr. Eugene Lyon, the document is reproduced in facsimile in appendix D and translated and annotated by Denise Lakey. Among other surprises, the document appears to indicate that Nina carried four masts, not three, as historians have always presumed. The reader may be somewhat disappointed in the results of recent archaeo­ logical research: all but three of the sites explored had been salvaged or dredged before archaeologists arrived on the scene, and not one of them can be positively identified as a caravel or nao. The archaeological findings seem to be ambiguous, even contradictory, and one gets the impression that it is still too early to learn much from this quarter. Vanguard's main concern is the ships themselves—the technological vectors for geographic exploration. It makes the point that the seagoing ship resulted from the purposeful combining of several technologies that already existed. The effect of this on European culture is imparted subliminally throughout the descriptions...