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Maritime Archaeology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maritime archaeology (also known as marine archaeology) is a discipline that studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of vessels, shore side facilities, cargoes, human remains and submerged landscapes. One speciality is underwater archaeology, which studies the past through any submerged remains. Another specialty within maritime archaeology is nautical archaeology, which studies vessel construction and use.

Maritime archaeological sites usually result from shipwrecks or sometimes seismic catastrophes, and thus represent a moment in time rather than a slow deposition of material accumulated over a period of years. This fact has lead to shipwrecks being described as time capsules.

Archaeological material in the sea or in other underwater environments is typically subject to different factors than artifacts on land. However, as with land archaeology what survives to be investigated by modern archaeologists is a tiny fraction of the material originally deposited. The issue in maritime archaeology is that despite all the material that is lost, there are occasional rare examples of substantial survival, from which a great deal can be learned.

There are those in the archaeology community who see maritime archaeology as a segregrated discipline with its own concerns (such as shipwrecks) and requiring the specialised skills of the underwater archaeologist. Others value an integrated approach, stressing that nautical activity has economic and social links to communities on land.