Underwater archeology - Papers from 2012 to 2014
The documents are classified chronologically.
Click on their descriptions to open and download them.
Authors:
William McVicker, Jeffrey Forrester, Timothy Gambin,
Jane Lehr, Zo¨e J. Wood, and Christopher M. Clark
This paper presents a new method for constructing 2D
maps of enclosed underwater structures using an
underwater robot equipped with only a 2D scanning
sonar, compass, and depth sensor.
Authors:
A. Caiti, V. Calabr´o, F. Di Corato, T. Fabbri, D. Fenucci,
A. Munafo, B. Allotta, F. Bartolini, R. Costanzi, J. Gelli, N.
Monni, M. Natalini, L. Pugi, A. Ridolfi.
The Thesaurus project, funded by the Tuscany Region,
had among its goals the development of technologies
and methodologies for archaeological search with
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles working as a team
in exploration missions. That has led to designing and
realizing a new AUV class (Typhoon) based on the
archaeological requirements and an appropriate
acoustic simultaneous communication and localization
scheme.
This paper examines three of Australia’s earliest port-
related structure studies.
Excavations conducted in 1984 and 1994 in vastly
different circumstances, with markedly different
oceanographic conditions, progressing through quite
different substrates, were joined with 1993–1994
overview of all the port structures along the coast of
Western Australia. Providing a better appreciation of
submerged port-related structure studies as a bona fide
part of maritime archaeology, these three studies and
have ramifications for future work both in Australia and
overseas.
Underwater cultural heritage is typically associated
with the study of shipwrecks and what they can tell
us about the history of ship building, maritime trade
and migration over the past five millennia. During
the past decade an interest in the underwater world
has been extended much further back in time, and
not simply to earlier examples of underwater finds but
to whole landscapes that have been drowned by
sea level rise at the end of the last glacial period.
Document provided by James Delgado
Amongst the detrimental man-made impacts to which
shipwrecks are susceptible – such as sand and gravel
dredging, pipeline cutting, and looting – the pressures
of the global fishing industry are understated. Recent
research has led to a growing concern that trawling
and scallop dredging are high on the list of the most
aggressive forms of anthropogenic impact on the
resource. The classes of artefacts inadvertently snagged
in nets reveal a geographically and typologically wide
set of data. The damaging reality may be compared to
the effects of ploughing on terrestrial archaeological
sites. Underwater, however, no policies have been
formulated to manage and mitigate offshore fishing
politically or to recommend best-practice guidance.
This report presents global evidence for the history of
bottom fishing impacts on underwater cultural
heritage and examines the diversity of impacted finds
and sites through 68 examples and case studies.
Potential forms of mitigation and management are
discussed.
Authors:
Will Brouwers, Johan Opdebeeck, Rodrigo Torres, &
Thijs Coenen
A shipwreck of the Dutch admiralty in the Baía de
Todos os Santos, Brazil: its history from battle to
archaeological assessment
Authors:
Jennifer F. McKinnon, Toni L. Carrell
This project focuses on the underwater cultural
heritage (UCH) remains from the World War II (WWII)
Battle of Saipan that occurred in June and July of 1944
in the Commonwealth of the Northern.
Mariana Islands (CNMI). This project builds upon a
2009 ABPP grant (WWII Invasion Beaches Underwater
Heritage Trail GA-2255-09-028) to survey and map the
submerged archeological sites from the Battle.
(McKinnon and Carrell 2011)
This book explores approaches to the interpretation of
shipwrecks, an archaeological site type with specific
qualities and associated challenges and potentials. It is
not a book about shipwreck archaeology in the sense
of methodology, neither is it a study of ship technology
in terms of their design and construction processes,
nor a synthesis of past work in any general sense.
Instead, it is a series of explorations of how scientists
experience and interpret the remains of past human
activity in the form of one of its most complex
manifestations.
This paper highlights aspects where a small ROV has
the potential to provide significant benefits, making a
case for more widespread use of this technology
within the Australian maritime archaeological sphere.
In particular, the author focuses on applying ROVs in
underwater cultural heritage management and
underwater imaging and shows examples of work
where ROVs have already been used with excellent
results.
Authors: Davíð Bjarni Heiðarsson.
This thesis aims to analyze underwater heritage
management in Iceland and make it available and
understandable to archaeologists and people without
an academic background. This thesis focuses on
protection by comprehending the threats and
addressing them without great excavations since it is
the authors’ opinion, supported by the 2001
Underwater Cultural Heritage Convention.
Author: Johan Opdebeeck
This document explains the laws and procedures in
force in the Netherlands and the action undertaken to
protect the archeological heritage threatened by the
extension of the harbour activities in the northern part
of the Netherlands, which comprised a larger seaway
to the port of Eemshaven and the creation of an
anchorage outside the harbour.
Authors: Tori Falck & Jostein Gundersen.
This document explains the procedures implemented
to investigate and preserve potential archeologic
remains during the construction of a new immersed
tunnel passing through the central harbour of Oslo.
Authors: Michael P. Fedoroff, Jeffrey M. Enright, Nick
Linville, Larry Parson.
To investigate Mobile harbour in Alabama, United
States, before dredging, the United States Army Corps
of Engineers (USACE) developed a predictive model
for potential submerged cultural resources based on
the area's environmental characteristics and maritime
history. The predictive model was used to determine
the potential for historic shipwrecks near the project
location and their likely design, composition, and age.
Author: Chuck Meide
It was some time before archaeologists working on
underwater sites regularly utilized theoretical
frameworks to interpret their work better, as were their
terrestrial counterparts. As late as the 1970s, Keith
Muckelroy (1978:10) noted that maritime archaeology
displayed “a remarkable lack of development or
systematization,” constituting an “academic immaturity”
when compared to other archaeological sub-
disciplines.
Authors:
Thijs Maarleveld and Alice Overmeer, with
contributions by O. Brinkkemper, F. van Deijk, W.M.
Gijsbers, E.M. Jacobs, C. Joosten, M. Terhorst, A.D. Vos
In 1635 or shortly thereafter, a Dutch ship was laden
with all sorts of materials and products, mostly metals
but also textiles from the booming wool industries in
both Flanders and Holland, a shipment of leather and
exotic ivory. This ship of considerable size departed
from the Dutch Republic at a time of profound
troubles for a destination it never reached. It sank off
the coast of Texel, where it was discovered 350 years
later.
Authors: Hayat Erkanal, Vasif Sahoglu, & Irfan Tuggu
“Izmir Region Excavations and Research Project 1 ” was
begun in 1992 with Urla/Liman Tepe Excavations led
by Hayat Erkanal. Excavations have been ongoing
since 2006 by Ankara University Research Center for
Maritime Archaeology (ANKÜSAM) 2, which has now
completed its institutionalization process.
The project consists of four excavations on land, two
completed, two ongoing, and underwater excavations.
Authors: Hayat Erkana, Vasif Sahoglu, IrfanTugcu
“Izmir Region Excavations and Research Project" began
in 1992 with Urla/Liman Tepe Excavations led by
Hayat Erkanal. Excavations have been ongoing since
2006 by Ankara University Research Center for
Maritime Archaeology (ANKUSAM)2, which has now
completed its institutionalization process.
The project consists of four excavations on land, two
completed, two ongoing, and underwater excavations.
Document provided by provided by Chealsea Freeland
Stem to Stern is a magazine published annually by the
Program in Maritime Studies
(https://maritimestudies.ecu.edu/)
The Maritime Studies Association (MSA) is the official
student-run group for the Maritime Studies Program. It
provides opportunities for students to expand their
education through events like presentations by
professionals in the field of maritime archaeology, field
trips to historical vessels, and advanced dive training
through ECU’s Office of Diving and Water Safety.
Author: Padraig Cronin
The concept of writing legislation that covers an
international spectrum for protecting and managing
any finite resource is fraught with difficulties. Firstly,
different ideas and viewpoints exist in each country's
understanding and definition of what is essential
heritage and protected heritage. Secondly, a public's
perception and changing attitude towards maritime
culture, the interpretation of what is heritage, and thus
in need of documentation and protection is an ever-
changing complex term to define.
Author: Alberto Frigerio
This dissertation investigates the underwater cultural
heritage from a multidisciplinary approach, sustained
by argumentative reflections, comparative analysis and
problem solving techniques in a combination
of theoretical, legal and managerial perspectives. The
main purpose is to provide a complete, dynamic and
innovative framework of analysis that may also serve as
a guide for implementation.
Author: Christopher Todd Dewey
This paper examines the site formation processes of the
U. S. 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.
Author: Alberto Frigerio
This document investigates the underwater cultural
heritage from a multidisciplinary approach, sustained
by argumentative reflections, comparative analysis, and
problem-solving techniques in a combination of
theoretical, legal, and managerial perspectives. The
main purpose is to provide a complete, dynamic and
innovative framework of analysis that may also serve as
a guide for implementation.
Author: Mark Staniforth
The Australian Historic Shipwreck Preservation Project
(AHSPP) has focused on the reburial and in-situ
preservation of shipwrecks and colonial shipbuilding. In
2011 researchers identified a number of criteria that a
research site should meet in addressing these topics
including a) the shipwreck must be identified at risk; b)
the site should be logistically accessible; c) the site has
been extensively researched, monitored, and perhaps
partially excavated previously; and d) the current
managing agency must supports the AHSPP and have
the capacity to carry out the long-term monitoring of
the site.
