Underwater archeology - Papers from 1960 to 2011
Authors:
Daniel Warre, Robert Church, Dr. Roy Cullimore,
Lori Johnston
In October 2003, investigations were undertaken by
C & C Technologies Inc., in conjunction with the
NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, Droycon
Bioconcepts, Inc. and the PAST Foundation, to
document the wreck site of the DKM U-166 in 5,000
feet of water in the Mississippi Canyon Area of the Gulf
of Mexico. At the time, the project was the deepest
archaeological investigation ever conducted in the
Gulf of Mexico. This project marked one of the first
instances that positioning technology that is routinely
used in the offshore oil and gas industry was utilized
on a deepwater archaeological investigation of a
shipwreck.
Authors:
G. Conte, S. M. Zanoli, D. Scaradozzi, L. Gambella, & V.
Calabrò
This paper proposes a methodology for a marine
archeological survey to extract as much information as
possible from a site with minimal time and in a non-
invasive way. In general, this is done by taking photos
and measurements of objects and terrain, which are
then used to construct representations of the site in the
form of maps.
In the proposed approach, standard manual
procedures for structuring the site and for gathering
data of the type, as mentioned above, have been
redesigned to exploit the potential of beneficial
cooperation between human operators and robotics
devices, such as ROVs.
Publisher:
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
In 2005 a Greek and American interdisciplinary team
investigated two shipwrecks off the coast of Chios
dating to the 4th-century b.c. and the 2nd/1st century.
The project pioneered archaeological methods of
precision acoustic, digital image, and chemical survey
using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and
in-situ sensors, increasing data acquisition speed while
decreasing costs. The AUV recorded data revealing the
physical dimensions, age, cargo, and preservation of
the wrecks. The earlier wreck contained more than
350 amphoras, predominantly Chian type, while the
Hellenistic shipwreck contained about 40 Dressel 1C
amphoras. Molecular biological analysis of two
amphoras from the 4th-century wreck revealed ancient
DNA of olive, oregano, and possibly mastic, part of a
cargo outbound from Chios.
Authors:
J. Batryn, A. Gonzalez, J. Lehr, T. Gambin, C. Forney, J.
Forreste, B. Bagley, W. McVicker, J. White, T. Smith,
C.M. Clark, and Z.J. Wood.
The authors present a methodology and algorithm for
the reconstrucion of three-dimensional geometric
models of ancient Maltese water storage systems, i.e.,
cisterns, from sonar data. This project was conducted
as a part of a four-week expedition on the islands of
Malta and Gozo.
During this expedition, investigators used underwater
robot systems capable of mapping ancient
underwater cisterns and tunnels. The mapping
included probabilistic algorithms for constructing the
maps of the sonar data and computer graphics for
surface reconstruction and visualization.
Authors:
B. Allotta, A. Caiti, M. Cocco, C. Colombo, W. Daviddi, L.
Gualdesi, D. La Monica, D. Moroni, G. Pieri, O. Salvetti,
& M. Tampucci.
This project aimed to develop multidisciplinary
methodologies and technologies to detect, catalog,
and document underwater artifacts and wreckage
with archaeological and ethno-anthropological value.
In particular, specially designed Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) were used to
systematically explore the sea floor, collecting and
analyzing in real-time heterogeneous data from
acoustic, optical, and magnetic sensors to promptly
detect objects of interest.
Author: John D. Broadwater
Abstract:
The Yorktown Shipwreck Archaeological Project has
employed ocean technology for the location,
assessment and excavation of ship-wrecks from the
Battle of Yorktown,1781. A total of nine shipwrecks
was located, using remote-sensing surveys. The best-
preserved of the shipwrecks was excavated using a
unique method: a steel enclosure, or cofferdam, was
constructed around the shipwreck, and filtration
systems were used to clarify the enclosed water, thus
alleviating strong currents and near-zero visibility
which hampered previous research. During the
excavation, recording was accomplished using a
three-dimensional measurement system. Final hull
measurements were recorded with a device which
utilizes high-frequency sonic signals to provide precise
measurements. A computer-aided design and
drafting (CADD) system provided analysis and report-
quality drawings.
Authors: M McCarthy, K Hosty, and C. Philippou
Provided by James Hunter (Curator of Naval Heritage
and Archaeology at the Australian National Maritime
Museum)
This document summarizes the topics discussed during
the 2006 Australian seminar on iron, steel, and
steamship archaeology in Fremantle, Melbourne, and
Sydney.
Authors: Robert H. Pritchett III, William K. Seliger
This book is the product of the authors' research,
personal experiences, consultations with experts, and
thousands of dives looking for shipwrecks and the
most productive lease area for Anchor Research &
Salvage, SRL (see website www.arsdr.com).
Georges Bass is a prolific author and a recognized
archeologist who organized numerous operations and
taught in many universities.
In this book, he explains the development of scientific
underwater archeology and the methods still currently
used with the help of new technologies.
This book is a compilation of several articles from
recognized scientists regarding wreckages found in the
Americas.
This book chronologically describes various examples
of wreckages:
1.
The oldest wrecks
2.
Ancient greek wrecks
3.
Roman and Byzantine wrecks
4.
Medieval and renaissance wrecks
5.
Seventeen-century wreck
6.
Eighteen-century wreck
7.
Wrecks of modern times
James Hunter is the Naval Heritage and Archaeology
curator at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
This paper the process of discovery, identification, and
archaeological investigation of the remains of the
“Mosquito”, an Australian 2nd-class torpedo-boat,
launched in 1883 and abandoned on the foreshore of
a tributary of the Brisbane River in 1913, where it has
been stripped.
The history of the ship is also discussed.
During the long time span from 1 million years B.P to
10,000 B.P, the human race colonized all the
continents of the earth (with the exception of
Antarctica) and most of the major islands. The dates of
these colonizing migrations are not known, even
approximately, although some of them involve crossing
channels that are now wide sea straits, such as the
Timor Sea and the Celebes Sea between Indonesia and
Papua New Guinea-Australia (which were one
continent during the glaciations) or the Bering Strait
between Siberia and Alaska. This spread of the human
race across the globe is poorly
understood, though it must be counted one of the
most important processes in human history.
This article describes underwater archaeology through
the following topics:
Aims
The Environment
Methodology, techniques, and equipment
Sites and structures
Artifacts
Publications, organizations, and conferences
Key Issues
Published in 2013 by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization Endorsed by the
Scientific and Technical Advisory Body of the 2001
Convention on the Protection of the Underwater
Cultural Heritage
Authors: Eusebio Dizon, Barbara Egger, Dolores Elkin,
Pilar Luna Erreguerena, Robert Grenier, John Gribble,
Ulrike Guérin, Emad Khalil, Martijn Manders, Thijs
Maarleveld, Jean-Bernard Memet, Jasen Mesi´c, Xavier
Nieto Prieto, David Nutley, Iwona Pomian, Della Scott-
Ireton, Athena Trakadas and Robert Veccella.
Editors: Prof. Dr. Thijs Maarleveld, Dr. Ulrike Guérin,
Barbara Egger
Scientific responsibility: Prof. Dr. Thijs Maarleveld
ICOMOS is a non-governmental international
organisation dedicated to the conservation of the
world's monuments and sites.
International Secretariat - 11 rue du Séminaire de Conflans -
94 220 Charenton-le-Pont, France
Tel. + 33 (0) 1 41 94 17 59 - E-mail: secretariat@icomos.org
The International Committee on the Underwater
Cultural Heritage (ICUCH) was founded in 1991 by
ICOMOS Australia to promote international
cooperation in the protection and management of
underwater cultural heritage and to advise the
International Council on Monuments and Sites
(ICOMOS) on issues related to underwater.
This document has been provided by Dr. Antony Firth
Sub Marine Explorer was an innovative vessel that was
conceived and launched in 1865-1866 with the twin
demands of the American Civil War and the
Panamanian pearl fishery in mind. The product of the
German immigrant ironworker Julius H. Kroehl, a gifted
underwater engineer and inventor, Sub Marine
Explorer was one of the most important and successful
developments in the early days of the submarine boat.
It was one of two technological successes and is one of
only five submarines known to exist from that early
period. It is the only one built for use by the Union still
in existence, giving it an iconic status along with its
contemporary, the confederate submarine HL Hunley.
Nonetheless its presence at the remote Isla San Telmo
in the Archipielago de las Perlas, Panama was
unknown until 2001.
Authors:
Brent M. Wilson, Donald L. Johnson, Hans VanTilburg,
Matthew A. Russell, Larry E. Murphy, James D. Carr,
Robert J. De Angelis, and David L. Conlin
The assessment of corrosion on the USS Arizona
included the pioneering development of a minimum-
impact cost-effective technique to determine the
corrosion rate of steel-hulled shipwrecks in seawater.
The technique, with potential application worldwide,
is illustrated in this paper with the application to a
World War II Japanese midget submarine submerged
in deep waters off the Oahu, Hawaii, coast.
This document has been provided by Hans Van
Tilburg.
This Manual is the result of an effort to establish state-
of-the-art management and protection of submerged
archaeological sites in light of UNESCO’s Convention
on the protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage
of 2001. It is intended for use as a reference tool by site
managers, stakeholders, and partners in the protection
of underwater cultural heritage and by persons
responsible for training courses in underwater
archaeology.
Author: Jennifer McKinnon
Saipan is the capital and one of the fifteen islands
of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands (CNMI), part of the larger Micronesian
archipelago called the Mariana Islands.
In June and July of 1944, the Battle for Saipan was
one ofthe largest amphibious invasions launched by
the USA during the Second World War in the Pacific.
Much of the Undrwater Cultural Heritage research
conducted in Saipan has been undertaken specifically
on WWII sites.
Authors: N.C.Flemming, G.N.Bailey, V.Courtillot, G.King,
K.Lambeck, F.Ryerson, & C.Vita-Finzi
Submarine prehistoric archaeological sites on
Mediterranean coasts contribute to understanding
human migrations in the last 2 million years. "Out of
Africa", "Multi-regional", and "Trellis" models of human
origins and dispersal depend on what environments
attracted hominid and modern human occupation
and how temporal and spatial variations in
environments facilitated or impeded population
dispersal and gene flow. A determining factor for
migration routes and possible two-way dispersal across
potential boundaries was the level of the world ocean
and the degree of obstruction presented by straits,
channels, estuaries, and semi-enclosed seas...
Authors: Koenraad Van Balen, Thijs J. Maarleveld
This project attempts to introduce the Underwater
Cultural Heritage from the points of view of world
heritage organizations (such as UNESCO and
ICOMOS), to give a brief history of the development of
Underwater Cultural Heritage conventions, to present
a general overview of the archaeological experiences
in the world, and specifically Belgium to deal with the
problems of criteria and applying the conventions, and
finally, to depict a future perspective of Underwater
Cultural Heritage in Belgium and to introduce some
cases.
Author: Michael Jones & Rebecca Ingram
The post-excavation documentation of two Byzantine
merchantmen from the Theodosian Harbor
excavations at Yenikapı continued throughout 2011 at
the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA)’s Bodrum
Research Center in Bodrum, Turkey.
These two ships, Y.K. 11 (c. seventh century C.E.) and
Y.K. 14 (c. 900 C.E.), were excavated and dismantled in
2008 and 2007, respectively, at the Yenikapı excavation
in Istanbul, Turkey. They are part of a group of eight
shipwrecks from the Yenikapı site being studied by a
team of archaeologists under the directorship of Dr.
Cemal Pulak, associate professor at Texas A&M
University and Vice President of INA.
Authors: Julie Satchel & Paola Palma
This publication is the result of the international
conference on Managing the Marine Cultural Heritage
which was organized by the Maritime affairs group of
the institute of field archaeologists, held in September
2004. The conference invited speakers from around
the world to share their experiences through
presentations to an equally international audience
which included representatives from five continents.
The aim was to disseminate information on
approaches to marine heritage management, which
included new ideas, trials, developments, and best
practice models, to promote understanding and initiate
dialogue between heritage practitioners, managers,
and curators.
Edithors: Vicki Richards, Jennifer McKinnon
This paper summarizes the combined annual
conference for the Australasian Institute for Maritime
Archaeology, the Australasian Society for Historical
Archaeology, and the Australian Association for
Maritime History was held at the magnificent Institute
Building of the State Library of South Australia in
Adelaide in September 2008. Over the three days of
the conference, there were six plenary lectures
presented by six international guest speakers and nine
conference sessions featuring fifty presentations.
This thesis develops a new methodological approach
to the archaeology of Australian Colonial maritime
landscapes and communities, based on a critical
reading and evaluation of international advances in
cultural landscape theory and research.
This report is about Sophia Albertina; a Swedish ship
foundered in Dutch waters in 1781. In 2004 the
Cultural Heritage Agency's diving team explored the
wreck of the Sophia Albertina. Alice Overmeer
demonstrates in this paper that this wreck is indeed
that of the Swedish ship, the Sophia Albertina, making
it one of the few in Dutch waters officially identified.
Authors: Martijn R. Manders, Hans K. Van Tilburg, and
Mark. Staniforth.
This unit from the training manual for the UNESCO
Foundation Course on the Protection and
Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage in Asia
and the Pacific introduces the concept of significance
in managing underwater cultural heritage.
It is published with the agreement of the authors.
Seafaring, water transport, and water management are
the main characteristics of Dutch culture. Keeping the
water out, and making good use of it, have qualified
life in the low-lying estuarine and tidal regions every
time they were inhabited. Consequently, the Dutch
landscape is commanded by waterways and drainage
systems, so Dutch cities are canal-ridden where
maritime heritage is paramount.
The realization of the national land reclamation project
partitioning the Zuiderzee and creating the
"Usselmeerpolders" first added a profusion of
archaeological ships to the care of heritage
management.
- Presented by Sorna Khakzad
- Promoters: Prof. Koenraad Van Balen - Prof. Thijs J.
Maarleveld
Underwater archaeology- or "underwater cultural
heritage", as the world heritage organizations call it, is a
relatively new area of heritage and is going to be more
and more crucial and remarkable as a part of human
heritage. This project attempts to introduce the
"Underwater Cultural Heritage" from world heritage
organizations (such as UNESCO and ICOMOS).
Six RAN submarines, all of one class, launched in 1916,
were scuttled in Victorian waters of varying depths
between 1922–1930. This provided a unique
opportunity to study the parameters affecting
shipwreck corrosion while simultaneously controlling
for most other variables, such as date built, mode of
construction, and service histories. They also provide an
excellent training bed for those seeking to examine the
wreck of the iconic Australian submarine AE2 in deep
water near the Dardanelles in Turkey.
Author: Christopher todd Dewey
This paper examines the site formation processes of the
US. Steamer Convoy that burned and sank in
Pensacola Pass in March 1866 and the search for the
Confederate Schooner William H. Judah that burned
and sank in the same vicinity five years earlier.
The vessels' civil war histories are discussed, as well as
the deliberate and opportunistic salvage operations
conducted on the convoy's wreck site during the 19th
and 20th centuries.
The documents are classified chronologically.
Click on their descriptions to open and download them.
Author: Nathan Richards
This thesis is an examination of deliberately discarded
watercraft in Australia.
It represents a comparative, non-particularist
approach that seeks to understand abandoned
vessels within a diverse theoretical framework. This
view sees the remains of abandoned watercraft as an
important component of
Australian maritime heritage with the potential to shed
light on a number of areas
Document provided by Jennifer McKinnon
This document groups analyses of 23 publications by
eminent specialists
Author: M. McCarthy
This paper provides a background to the 2006
celebrations and outlines the breadth ofthe SS Xantho
studies since the first Australian on-site practical and
theoretical seminar on iron and steamship archaeology
in 1985. It also examines other developments in iron,
steel and steamship archaeology in Western Australia
since that time.
Author: George Bass
In this book Dr Georges Bass describes in detail the
sinking of the “Atlantic” in November 1846. He also
makes a quick review of his underwater archaeologist
carrier.
Document provided by Maria Mendes
This document groups analyses of 34 publications by
eminent specialists.
Author: Sean Kingsley
In the course of the marine archaeology session held
at the Underwater Intervention conference in New
Orleans on 11 February 2010, a panel discussion was
convened to explore the perceived merits and
potential pitfalls of UNESCO’s Convention on the
Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001.
Authors: David Parham & Micheal Williams
In May 1989, the Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy
Committee (JNAPC) launched its classic document
Heritage at Seal and put forward proposals for the
better protection of archaeological sites underwater.
(http://www.jnapc.org.uk/index.htm)
Author: Georges Bass
The ethics of underwater archaeology should be
exactly the same as the ethics of terrestrial archaeology.
There are, however, areas in which underwater
archaeology does differ from dry-land archaeology,
which presents special ethical concens.
Authors: Susan B.M. Langley & Brian A. Jordan
An archeological overview and assessment of maritime
resources in Maryland State waters from Ocean City to
the Virginia State Line, Worcester County, is being
undertaken in two parts by the Maryland Historical
Trust, for the Department of Natural Resources’s
Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program, pursuant
to DNR Contract 14-08-12241 CZM 161. This study is
intended to support planning and management
purposes and to comply with CZM program mandates.
Authors:
Mark Stantforth, James Hunter and Emily Jatejf
This chapter considers international approaches to
Underwater Cultural Heritage such as the United
Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
the 1996 ICOMOS Charter for the Protection and
Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage and the
2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the
Underwater Cultural Heritage. The paper will also
consider three case studies: The United States. Australia
and Spain, to examine different national approaches to
underwater cultural heritage law.
Author: Shelly Wachsmann
Coastal waters represent the greatest danger to ships
and seafarers, despite the persistence of a modern
myth that has ancient mariners hugging the shore for
safety. It is precisely here, at the intersection of water
and shore, that ships are most commonly lost. It is
doubtful that this fact was lost on ancient seafarers.
Author: Christopher todd Dewey
This paper examines the site formation processes of the
US. Steamer Convoy that burned and sank in
Pensacola Pass in March 1866 and the search for the
Confederate Schooner William H. Judah that burned
and sank in the same vicinity five years earlier.
The vessels' civil war histories are discussed, as well as
the deliberate and opportunistic salvage operations
conducted on the convoy's wreck site during the 19th
and 20th centuries.
Author: M. McCarthy
This paper examines the processes that have led to a
broader recognition of the submerged aircraft as a
maritime archaeological site. Ethical issues, site
formation processes, conservation, site management
strategies, and legal matters are examined, along with
the protection of a suite of fifteen aircraft by a
Conservation Order promulgated under the Heritage
of Western Australia Act 1990.
Author: Vasif Hahoglu
Aegean prehistory became a research subject in the
19th century through the work of both travelers and
archaeologists and has increasingly continued to draw
the attention of archaeologists. Research on
mainland Greece, Crete and in the Cyclades has
enabled the definition of cultural areas that
developed independently but with continuous
contact with each other. Archaeological work in these
areas has enabled the definition of Helladic, Minoan
and Cycladic cultures in mainland Greece, Crete and
the Cyclades, respectively.
Authors: Jennifer McKinnon & Jason Raupp
This document, published in 2007 by the Department
of Archaeology, Flinders University Adelaide, South
Australia, makes a status of the operations undetaken
in 2006
Authors: Tim Smith & Sarah Ward
New South Wales has an estimated 1800 historic
shipwreck sites and an active Historic Shipwrecks
Program, administered by the Heritage Branch, NSW
Department of Planning. Started in 1988, the program
was established to help the community manage fragile
maritime archaeological sites, both underwater and on
land.
Author: Vicki Richard
The Busselton Jetty is located in Geographe Bay, a
broad, open, north-facing embayment between Cape
Bouvard and Cape Naturaliste on the southwest coast
of Western Australia. It is a relatively protected and
shallow bay. Water movement in Geographe Bay is
mainly wind driven. Geographe Bay has a relatively
short flushing period of 3–15 days, dependent on the
wind direction, and is, therefore, a well-mixed system.
Authors:
K. O’Brien, S.Tikkanen, C. Lindblad, P.Flyg, A. Olsson,
O.Uldum, I. Aarestad, and D. Nævdal
Nordic Blue Parks is a concept that combines
underwater nature and cultural trails (wreck trails and
trails at other anthropogenic sites and constructions
under water). The project was initially designed to be a
one year pilot, trying to formulate criteria and
guidelines for sustainable blue parks and to set up trails
to test these concepts in four Nordic countries, i.e.
Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
Authors: Thijs J Maarleveld
This Manual is the result of an effort to establish state-
of-the-art management and protection of submerged
archaeological sites in light of UNESCO’s Convention
on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage
of 2001. It is intended for use as a reference tool by site
managers, by stakeholders and partners in the
protection of underwater cultural heritage, and by
persons responsible for training courses in underwater
archaeology.
