Journal of Maritime Archaeology最新文献

Why do people go to sea? The relationship people have with land and sea, maritime space, boats and ships are entwined and complex, shaped and molded by the marine environment, identity and heritage. This paper explores the complexity of people's relationship with the sea to question how we can understand and model seafaring in the past, and how this can be used to better understand maritime heritage today. To be meaningful, computational analysis of seafaring must be tied into relevant known seafaring and navigation practice. Without this firm basis our statistical and hypothetical models lose the ability to measure past actions. However, there are many ways to 'go to sea' and seafaring practices do not start and end on the water itself. This paper reflects upon the process of seafaring, as it relates to our understanding of navigational knowledge, mobility in practice, seafaring as social action and the influences behind people's desire to set sail. There is much we can learn from applied practices of seafaring, conducted both by practitioners and through efforts of experimental or experiential archaeology; understanding the complexity and nuance of the social aspects of seafaring guides the research questions that shape our models and shapes how we use and understand the outcomes derived from quantitative computational approaches.

The Burgzand, located east of the Dutch island of Texel, has a rich maritime history. This area served as a part of the Texel roadstead, offering ships ample deep water and a sheltered anchorage. Despite its assumed safety, the Burgzand witnessed numerous shipwrecks, including the Burgzand Noord 4 (BZN4). Since 1999, archaeological expeditions have been conducted on the shipwreck, but this research has not yet led to an identification of the wreck. However, new research into the marks on casks found in the wreck, combining insights from other archaeological findings and textual sources, has revealed a very strong candidate for identification: the two-deck frigate't Hart. Thus far, the West Indiaman BZN4, representative of the ships of the trans-Atlantic trade in sugar, coffee, and cocoa, is the only such ship discovered in Dutch waters. Identifying BZN4 as 't Hart, which is the main objective of this paper, would offer a unique opportunity to explore trade and shipping between the Dutch Republic and its South American colonies.

Underwater excavations require an immense amount of logistics and have inherent time limitations. Underwater challenges such as nitrogen toxicity, underwater color change, and dive time limits increase with working depths, affecting the interpretation of archaeological contexts. Thus, underwater excavations involve methods and approaches to extract the maximum information from small areas while providing a comprehensive understanding of the archaeological record. Here, we present the benefits of using an on-site laboratory comprising a microscope, binocular microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and blue light inspection device. Three case studies are presented, focusing on the identification of stratigraphic boundaries, as well as the preservation and identification of archaeological materials. The results show a complex stratigraphic sequence containing seven layers divided into four mineralogical units: (1) Calcite, (2) Calcite and aragonite, (3) Aragonite, and (4) Dolomite. Additionally, the use of an on-site laboratory is effective in preventing the misidentification of archaeological materials, which could affect the final interpretation of the archaeological site (e.g., glass, lead, bone), and enabling the identification of materials invisible to the naked eye, such as opaline phytoliths. In the case of the Antikythera shipwreck, the on-site laboratory facilitated the examination of stratigraphy and quality of the archaeological context while streamlining excavation practices and documentation. Furthermore, the on-site laboratory allowed for the assessment of material preservation and provide crucial insights to inform post-excavation treatments and analysis of artifacts.

This article focuses on the Maritime Historical Cultural Heritage (herein after MHCH) of Puerto Madryn. This city, located in Argentinean Patagonia, on the coast of the Nuevo Gulf, is a natural harbor with a rich history of seafaring. Since the 2000s, Argentina’s Underwater Archaeology Program of the National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Thought (herein after PPROAS-INAPL), has been dedicated to the research and management of archaeological shipwreck sites located on the city’s foreshore, in the Nuevo Gulf, and other locations outside the city limits. In this article, the results of the studies carried out between 2018 and 2024 are presented. The primary aim was to broaden the knowledge of the MHCH of Puerto Madryn, focusing on shipwrecks. The specific objectives include classifying and characterizing the MHCH in a systematic manner, identifying the stakeholders’ interests in this heritage, understanding the various values assigned to the shipwrecks and the threats to their preservation. Based on the information gathered, a set of proposals for heritage activation oriented towards the enjoyment, interpretation and conservation of the MHCH is presented. This approach is innovative in South America for the topic under study.

The Early and Middle Neolithic (3500–2300 [Before Current Era] BCE) Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) was a critical component of the historical trajectory of Scandinavia’s maritime history. The hunter-gatherer societies of the PWC were highly adapted to maritime environments, and they fished, hunted, travelled, and traded across great distances over water. Exactly what boat types they used, however, is still an open question. Understanding the maritime technologies used by the PWC is a critical research area as they had an important impact on subsequent maritime adaptations in Scandinavian prehistory. Unfortunately, finding intact boats from Neolithic contexts is extremely difficult. Here, we present indirect evidence for the use of skin boats by PWC people as a first step towards building a dialog on the types of boats that would have been used during this period. We argue that multiple lines of evidence suggest that skin boats were widely used for every-day activities and long-distance voyages by PWC peoples and will discuss the implications of possible complex boat use by Neolithic peoples for our understanding of early Scandinavian maritime societies.

This article critically reviews four decades of development of maritime and underwater archaeology in India (MUAI). Established in 1981, the first Marine Archaeology Centre at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research—National Institute of Oceanography in Goa, India, has conducted a series of maritime and underwater investigations. The country has also attracted international collaborations mainly focused on maritime ethnographic studies. As such, the discipline has seen steady growth, but its progress unfortunately remains slow and is struggling to keep pace with the developments happening within the discipline globally. A significant setback was in 2015 when the Underwater Archaeology Wing (UAW) of the Archaeological Survey of India was defunct. Furthermore, India is not a signatory to the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. This raises the question—what does the future hold for the MUAI? The government’s plan to establish the country’s first National Maritime Museum to display maritime past and its intention to revive the UAW to boost research indicates some optimism towards the survival of the field. Nonetheless, there exists gaps in research approaches and methodologies adopted so far and problems and challenges faced by the discipline that are hindering its growth. Along with discussing the aforementioned issues, this paper concludes with prospects for the future of MUAI.

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of three bronze ring fragments with distinct corrosion patterns from the Nanhai No.1 shipwreck, employing optical microscopy, SEM–EDS, µ-RS, and µ-EDXRF techniques. The results exhibit that each bronze ring fragment displays unique corrosion characteristics but shares similarities in their patina structures: an outer layer composed of CuFeS₂₎ and malachite, a subsurface layer of CuS) and/or Copper Tin Sulfide, and an inner copper-depleted layer rich in tin and lead. These layers indicate the artifacts experienced three distinct corrosion stages corresponding to aerobic, anaerobic, and re-aerobic conditions, aligned with the ship's sinking, sediment coverage, and post-recovery scenarios. The study reveals that the pre-anaerobic corrosion products significantly influenced the corrosion kinetics in subsequent environments, affecting the final composition and structure of the patina. Notably, the outer CuS layer, regardless of its compactness, is unable to prevent the selective dissolution of copper from the alloy. The formation of a cuprite layer beneath the copper-depleted layer post-recovery suggests a corrosion resumption due to changes in environmental oxygen levels. These insights emphasize the need for targeted conservation strategies for marine-recovered bronze artifacts, considering their complex corrosion history and environmental interactions.

An early to mid-nineteenth century wreck off the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, discovered during deep-sea research in 2015 and subsequently documented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship Okeanos Explorer, is likely a wet-well smack employed in Atlantic seaboard fisheries from New England to the southern coast of the United States. This article describes the site, the historical and archaeological context of early American fishing craft, and the African American context of fishing and the fisheries of the period.

The study of the origin of underwater artefacts is a crucial and relevant topic to be highlighted, especially in the Southeast Asia Region, due to the active trading route during the Age of Sail. In the present study, we aim to discover the ship type and sailing route of the Bidong shipwreck using both relative and absolute analysis. The team analysed the wood samples collected at the Bidong shipwreck site during the second excavation phase. The analysis of wood anatomy and Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) was performed on five wood fragments at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). Based on the conducted analyses, two types of trees were identified in the construction of Bidong shipwrecks, namely Giam (Hopea spp.) and Meranti Temak Nipis (Shorea roxburghii). Both types of trees are commonly discovered in tropical climate regimes and the area of the Malay Archipelago. In addition, the team also compared the selected artefacts from the first phase of excavation with some published references of Southeast Asian Ceramic and live records from National Maritime Museums, Chanthaburi, and Southeast Asian Ceramic Museum, Bangkok University, Thailand. Significantly, the comparison analysis suggests that the artefacts rescued from the Bidong shipwreck were Thai ceramics of the Maenam Noi (Singburi) and Si Satchanalai (Sawankhalok) types. The result from these studies suggests that the Bidong shipwreck stopped loading Siamese ceramics or even repairing in Southeast Asia and sailing along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia for some destination in the sixteenth century during the Age of Monsoonal Civilisation.

This article represents the first historical study of the port site of Genoa Fortress located on the coast of the city of Annaba (عنابة) in Algeria. In it, we sought to highlight this coastal maritime cultural heritage and introduce it by showcasing its role, commercial activity, and the events that the port experienced during various historical periods, along with the sequence and origin of its name over these periods. We also provided a brief historical overview of the city of Annaba (عنابة). Additionally, we explored its relationship with ports on other shores of the Mediterranean Sea, particularly Genoa in Italy, by extracting ideal Genoese maritime routes between Genoa and Annaba (عنابة), utilizing various new methodologies. Therefore, our main objective in this study was to highlight new and significant historical aspects of the Algerian city of Annaba (عنابة), especially during the Middle Ages, through the intensive application of various methodologies, including Google Earth Pro 2023 and geographic information systems. This aimed to provide a comprehensive and clear understanding of how sailors, in general, and Genoese sailors, in particular, selected ideal maritime routes during ancient and medieval historical periods (The maritime route between the port of Genoa in Annaba (عنابة) and the port of Genoa in Genoa as a case study.).