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The archaeological study of ships’ cargo, hull, and maritime infrastructure.]]>
In this doctoral developing study the context of shipping activities in the wider Philippine-oriented community was identified through style-types previously established in studies in Terrestrial Archaeology, Coastal Landscape and Historic Records; the core of which was revealed to be the material culture of navigation. Maritime Archaeology methodology was used to approach the tools and symbols used in pilotage by the four main cultural groups to have settled in the Philippines – Austronesian, Arab, Chinese and Spanish. This revealed that pilots may have shared a common language in mathematics. With this potential explanation for communication across the groups the research turned to the shipwreck collections to find a shared commodity, ubiquitously expected – BEADS. The hypothesis that particular beads, representative of specific cultural groups pointed to a probability of beads on all the shipwrecks. This is to be tested by objectively recording the beads in a database. It is expected the end result of which will point to the identification of the bead style, manufacture and provenance which in turn will then be used as indicators to strengthen known stylistic features and shipping activities associated with the cultural groups. Preliminary results indicate this is not the case. The 16th century shipwrecks contain very few to no beads. This critical analysis will continue into the other Periods represented by shipwreck assemblages in the Museum’s collections. Could this study be a direct challenge to preconceived ideas of past Southeast Asian economic models?
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Electronic Publication by The Museum of Underwater Archaeology]]> ]]> Pacific Islands region: Building UCH Capacity]]>
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) seeks to discover, assess, and protect significant maritime heritage resources throughout its 14 sites, and assist partner programs and agencies in the general preservation of the underwater cultural heritage (UCH). NOAA has completed a document-based inventory for American Samoa and will propose field surveys for specific locations in the future as part of its overall effort to better understand and preserve special resources. The Sanctuary System’s Maritime Heritage Program supports work in the Pacific, and has the ability to offer Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) courses in maritime archaeology surveying techniques. Encouraging collaborative training opportunities, and better understanding the diversity of the UCH in the Pacific region, are two important ways to increase capacity in this field.
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Electronic Publication by The Museum of Underwater Archaeology]]>