The Archaeology Of Watercraft Abandonment

The historical importance and archaeological potential of deliberately discarded watercraft has not been a major feature of maritime archaeological enquiry. While research on the topic has appeared since the 1970s as books, chapters, and articles, most examples have been limited in focus and distribution, and in most cases disseminated as unpublished archaeological reports (i.e. the “gray literature”.) So, too, has there been a lack of a single source representing the diversity of geographical, historic, thematic, and theoretical contexts that ships’ graveyard sites and deliberately abandoned vessels represent. In contrast with much of the theoretical or case-specific literature on the theme of watercraft discard, this volume communicates to the reader the common heritage and global themes that ships’ graveyard sites represent. It serves as a blueprint to illustrate how the remains of abandoned vessels in ships' graveyards are sites of considerable research value. Moreover, the case studies in this volume assist researchers in understanding the evolution of maritime technologies, economies, and societies. This volume is intended to expose research potential, create discussion, and reinforce the significance of a prevalent cultural resource that is often overlooked.

Explicitly theoretical, this study avoids the single site bias of much underwater archaeology research and also eschews the traditional examination of shipwreck sites as the core component of studies in this field. Using Australian waters as a case study, Nathan Richards examines the sites of vessels which have been deliberately abandoned.

This volume presents multiple idiographic, archaeological studies of vernacular watercraft from North America and the Caribbean. Rather than attempt to synthesize all vernacular types, this volume focuses on ship construction data recovered through archaeological investigations that has been used to make inferences about culture. This collection of case studies, including many examples from cultural resource management and graduate student theses, presents a thematic exploration of cultural adaptation as expressed through ship construction.

This title is a comprehensive survey of maritime archaeology as seen through the eyes of nearly fifty scholars at a time when maritime archaeology has established itself as a mature branch of archaeology.

Few maritime landscapes in the Great Lakes remain so deeply and clearly inscribed by successive cultures as the St. Clair system—a river, delta, and lake found between Lake Huron and the Detroit River. The St. Clair River and its environs are an age-old transportation nexus of land and water routes, a strategic point of access to maritime resources, and, in many ways, a natural impediment to the navigation of the Great Lakes. From Indigenous peoples and European colonizers to the modern nations of Canada and the United States, this work traces the region’s transformation through culturally driven practices and artifacts of shipbuilding, navigation, place naming, and mapmaking. In this novel approach to maritime landscape archaeology, author Daniel F. Harrison unifies historiography, linguistics, ethnohistory, geography, and literature through the analysis of primary sources, material culture, and ecological and geographic data in a technique he calls "evidence-based storytelling." Viewed over time, the region forms a microcosm of the interplay of environment, culture, and technology that characterized the gradual shift from nature to an industrial society and a built environment optimized for global waterborne transport.

​Battlefields have been the object of fascination for millions of tourists and the subjects of elaborate interpretation projects. This volume will outline the process and results of developing the WWII Maritime Heritage Trail: Battle of Saipan Project. This book will provide examples of how a group of archaeologists, managers and a community took a specific battle and transformed it from a collection of unknown archaeological sites into a comprehensive storied battlescape that reflects the individuals and actions of those who were involved. It will provide an in-depth view of current maritime archaeological research on submerged battlefield sites, the development of a WWII battlefield maritime heritage trail, as well as the problems and solutions of such an effort. It will cover subjects such as: -heritage and dark tourism-conflict or battlefield archaeology-public interpretation, and community engagement. This volume will serve as a practical review of a project influenced by a range of complementary areas of study and inclusive of many stakeholders, from the public to the professional and beyond. It provides an example of a balanced approach towards research and interpreting archaeological sites through the identification and inclusion of the various stakeholders (professional and community) and an awareness of what was being included, ignored, or inadequately represented in the research and interpretation.