When the Land Meets the Sea – serie

Far too often in the ?eld of archeology, the wheel of understanding and insight has a narrow focus that fails to recognize critical studies. Crucial information rega- ing pivotal archeological investigations at a variety of sites worldwide is extremely dif?cult, if not impossible, to obtain. The majority of archeological analysis and reporting, at best, has limited publication. The majority of archeological reports are rarely seen and when published are often only in obscure or out-of-print journals – the reports are almost as hard to ?nd as the archeological sites themselves. There is a desperate need to pull seminal archeological writings together into single issue or thematic volumes. It is the int- tion of this series, When the Land Meets the Sea, to address this problem as it relates to archeological work that encompasses both terrestrial and underwater archeology on a single site or on a collection of related sites. For example, despite the fact that we know that bays and waterways structured historic settlement, there is a lack of archeological literature that looks at both the nautical and terrestrial signatures of watersheds in?uence on historic culture.

Maritime cultural landscapes are collections of submerged archaeological sites, or combinations of terrestrial and submerged sites that reflect the relationship between humans and the water.  These landscapes can range in size from a single beach to an entire coastline and can include areas of terrestrial sites now inundated as well as underwater sites that are now desiccated.  However, what binds all of these sites together is the premise that each aspect of the landscape –cultural, political, environmental, technological, and physical – is interrelated and can not be understood without reference to the others. In this maritime cultural landscape approach, individual sites are treated as features within the larger landscape and the interpretation of single sites add to a larger analysis of a region or culture. This approach provides physical and theoretical links between terrestrial and underwater archaeology as well as prehistoric and historic archaeology; consequently, providing a framework for integrating such diverse topics as trade, resource procurement, habitation, industrial production, and warfare into a holistic study of the past. Landscape studies foster broader perspectives and approaches, extending the study of maritime cultures beyond the shoreline. Despite this potential, the archaeological study of maritime landscapes is a relatively untried approach with many questions regarding the methods and perspectives needed to effectively analyze these landscapes.  The chapters in this volume, which include contributions from the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Australia, address many of the theoretical and methodological questions surrounding maritime cultural landscapes. The authors comprise established scholars as well as archaeologists at the beginning of their careers, providing a healthy balance of experience and innovation. The chapters also demonstrate parity between method and theory, where thevarying interpretations of culture and space are given equal weight with the challenges of investigating both wet and dry sites across large areas.

Far too often in the ?eld of archeology, the wheel of understanding and insight has a narrow focus that fails to recognize critical studies. Crucial information rega- ing pivotal archeological investigations at a variety of sites worldwide is extremely dif?cult, if not impossible, to obtain. The majority of archeological analysis and reporting, at best, has limited publication. The majority of archeological reports are rarely seen and when published are often only in obscure or out-of-print journals – the reports are almost as hard to ?nd as the archeological sites themselves. There is a desperate need to pull seminal archeological writings together into single issue or thematic volumes. It is the int- tion of this series, When the Land Meets the Sea, to address this problem as it relates to archeological work that encompasses both terrestrial and underwater archeology on a single site or on a collection of related sites. For example, despite the fact that we know that bays and waterways structured historic settlement, there is a lack of archeological literature that looks at both the nautical and terrestrial signatures of watersheds in?uence on historic culture.

Maritime cultural landscapes are collections of submerged archaeological sites, or combinations of terrestrial and submerged sites that reflect the relationship between humans and the water.  These landscapes can range in size from a single beach to an entire coastline and can include areas of terrestrial sites now inundated as well as underwater sites that are now desiccated.  However, what binds all of these sites together is the premise that each aspect of the landscape –cultural, political, environmental, technological, and physical – is interrelated and can not be understood without reference to the others. In this maritime cultural landscape approach, individual sites are treated as features within the larger landscape and the interpretation of single sites add to a larger analysis of a region or culture. This approach provides physical and theoretical links between terrestrial and underwater archaeology as well as prehistoric and historic archaeology; consequently, providing a framework for integrating such diverse topics as trade, resource procurement, habitation, industrial production, and warfare into a holistic study of the past. Landscape studies foster broader perspectives and approaches, extending the study of maritime cultures beyond the shoreline. Despite this potential, the archaeological study of maritime landscapes is a relatively untried approach with many questions regarding the methods and perspectives needed to effectively analyze these landscapes.  The chapters in this volume, which include contributions from the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Australia, address many of the theoretical and methodological questions surrounding maritime cultural landscapes. The authors comprise established scholars as well as archaeologists at the beginning of their careers, providing a healthy balance of experience and innovation. The chapters also demonstrate parity between method and theory, where thevarying interpretations of culture and space are given equal weight with the challenges of investigating both wet and dry sites across large areas.

In creating interpretive strategies for maritime sites, archaeologists and resource managers often are required to think creatively to overcome challenges and problems. These issues include interpreting sites in inaccessible locations and extremely deep water, enabling and controlling access to fragile sites and restricted areas, monitoring visitor behavior, making information interesting to a wide audience, and creating opportunities for public engagement, among other concerns. Meeting Challenges presents cutting-edge interpretation and public education strategies for maritime resources, both on land and underwater, with emphasis on solving the unique problems often associated with presenting these fragile, limited-access sites as heritage attractions and on developing effective visitation and civic engagement opportunities. The examples presented ideally can serve as models for resource managers, archaeologists engaged in interpretation, and site administrators. This volume brings together a diverse group of heritage professionals to discuss issues they’ve encountered and to present ideas and case studies for adapting, improvising, and overcoming them.

This book offers interpretation and public education strategies for maritime resources, emphasizing problems involved with presenting fragile, limited-access sites as heritage attractions and developing effective visitation and civic engagement opportunities.

This book offers interpretation and public education strategies for maritime resources, emphasizing problems involved with presenting fragile, limited-access sites as heritage attractions and developing effective visitation and civic engagement opportunities.

This book explores the historical and archaeological evidence of the relationships between a coastal community and the shipwrecks that have occurred along the southern Australian shoreline over the last 160 years.

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 book explores the historical and archaeological evidence of the relationships between a coastal community and the shipwrecks that have occurred along the southern Australian shoreline over the last 160 years. It moves beyond a focus on shipwrecks as events and shows the short and long term economic, social and symbolic significance of wrecks and strandings to the people on the shoreline. This volume draws on extensive oral histories, documentary and archaeological research to examine the tensions within the community, negotiating its way between its roles as shipwreck saviours and salvors.

This volume presents multiple idiographic, archaeological studies of vernacular watercraft from North America and the Caribbean. 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.

The site offers insights into the processes of settlement inundation, which is relevant to sea-level rise nowadays, as well as the circumstances of survival and discovery of submerged sites worldwide.

This book explores the interplay between a people, their physical environment, the means of mobility that connect the two, and how these elements combine in the creation of cognitive and cultural landscapes. Specifically, it examines how Indigenous Warrau people in the village of Imbotero, Guyana, use traditional dugout canoes in the surrounding swamp forest and on connecting waterways; how canoes mediate between the Warrau and their landscape; and how the relationship is bi-directional: that is, how people use boats to conceptualise and exploit the landscape while, simultaneously, the landscape influences culture, cognition, and boat use.The book traces the history of the Warrau canoe from the earliest evidence of prehistoric use to the present. It describes how dugout canoes are built and handled, how they form the basis of Imbotero’s economy and culture, and how they enable access to, and exploitation of, the environment. It explores the roles of age, gender, and social status in canoe use, examines the fading spiritual component of canoe construction, and discusses challenges to the Warrau’s canoe heritage, with suggestions of how that heritage might be safeguarded. The role of the physical environment upon culture is analysed within Christer Westerdahl’s maritime cultural landscape (MCL) framework, which is applied here for the first time to a contemporary swamp society. The swamp is shown to be fully compatible with the MCL concept, in that watercraft and their daily use play central roles in the people’s engagement with the environment, their worldview, and their identity.

This book highlights critical developments in maritime research focusing on transformations brought about by the establishment of the ‘Blue Economy’ as well as the increasing recognition of the value of heritage for contemporary communities. It brings together a collection of chapters that seek to identify, and shape, how the field of maritime archaeology will mature in the coming decades as approaches, technologies, as well as expectations and uses, change and adapt.The book specifically sets out to tackle an interrelated suite of major new topics focused on maritime resources, UNESCO and the impacts of the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, with an express focus on how maritime heritage can benefit local communities. Intended for an international audience, the book is written in an accessible style, with contributions that provide an in-depth discussion of the trends outlined above for students and researchers working in maritime archaeology and heritage.Chapter 2 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book retraces the story of the Dragon, a corvette of the French Navy of the king Louis XVI, engaged in secret against the backdrop of the American Revolutionary War. Taking an inductive approach, the work begins by describing the unidentified wreck of a small eighteenth-century warship.It goes on to reconstruct the tangled threads of the destinies of a young Navy officer and his corvette between France and the Americas. The Dragon was a former privateer cutter from Guernsey that had been captured and integrated into the French fleet. The ship, destroyed on January 22, 1783, tells the tale of a nobleman from the South of France, Joseph de L'Espine (1759-1826) and his devotion to the service of his king. At the end of 1782, at the age of 24, this lieutenant was tasked with transporting Captain de Courrejeolles, the bearer of encrypted missives, to Saint-Domingue. The Dragon was chased by a British squadron of 18 ships, and, cornered, L’Espine made the decision to blow up the ship.  Applying practices from both archaeology and history, this work is testament to the importance of the cooperation between the two disciplines by not confining itself to the study of the wreck alone (microhistory) and by extracting a rich historical narrative of greater scope.

Research into the anthropogenic and taphonomic processes that affect the formation of maritime archaeological resources has grown significantly over the last decade in both theory and the analysis of specific sites and associated material culture. The addition of interdisciplinary inquiry, investigative techniques, and analytical modeling, from fields such as engineering, oceanography, and marine biology have increased our ability to trace the unique pathways through which archaeological sites progress from initial deposition to the present, yet can also link individual sites into an integrated socio-environmental maritime landscape.This edited volume presents a global perspective of current research in maritime archaeological landscape formation processes. In addition to “classically” considered submerged material culture and geography, or those that can be accessed by traditional underwater methodology, case studies include less-often considered sites and landscapes. Theselandscapes, for example, require archaeologists to use geophysical marine survey equipment to characterize extensive areas of the seafloor or go above the surface to access maritime archaeological resources that have received less scholarly attention.