Industrial Archaeology

This article examines the geographical setting and the effects of past sea levels, the present and past marine climate, and watercraft that may have been used in the Caribbean region. It notes that understanding seafaring in the Antilles is critical to understanding the nature of migration, cultural interaction, and the cultures themselves. Acquiring this understanding has been hampered by two factors. The first is the paucity of early historic reports regarding the size and speed of watercraft and the geographic knowledge held by the general population. The second factor is the “stepping-stone” configuration of the islands, which has led researchers to make assumptions about routes of migration and contact that are not necessarily well supported. Aside from contacts with South America, other mainland contacts have often been rejected out of hand without adequate analysis.

This chapter surveys the coinage issued by Arsacid, Elymaean, and fratarakā rulers. The mints and denominations are described and the use of Greek in coin legends is discussed. The iconography of these issues is treated, as are problems of chronology and attribution. Specific elements, such as fire altars and portraits, are highlighted.

Australia is quintessentially a maritime nation where sea travel and transportation have been vitally important. Despite being an island, Australia hasd never completely felt isolated, and the indigenous peoples were never cut off from the rest of the world. This article presents four case studies in order to provide insights into the types and extent of maritime archaeological research that has been conducted over more than three decades in Australia. One of the great influences of Australian maritime archaeology over the years has been the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology. A drawback in Australian maritime archaeology is the lack of funding for academic research. Australia has developed legislation for the protection of the historic shipwreck component of its underwater cultural heritage.

This article is an introduction to the concept of maritime archaeology. In the field of archaeology, the study of a shipwreck endeavors to reconstitute the original ship. Thus, nautical archaeology belongs to the larger domain of maritime archaeology. The study of shipboard artifacts and cargo comes before a structural analysis is possible. Therefore, one must know how to anticipate the expected results in order to take into consideration the ensemble of data. A ship is an assembly of elements closely linked together, which express their true role in their relation to the whole. This article explains the conception phase. Several operations are necessary to achieve construction of a ship. The conception phase must then lead to a realization phase. The realization phase must materialize, with the help of diverse processes or methods, the construction principles chosen for the structural and shape concept of the ship.

This article focuses on early shipbuilding in the Eastern Mediterranean provided by shipwreck and terrestrial excavations. The study of the construction of early watercraft is mainly in the form of artistic representation. Egypt is the largest depository of early watercraft. The details of Near Eastern ships are painted on the Theban tomb of Kenamun. Hull remains from Late Bronze Age shipwrecks excavated off the coast of Turkey provide archaeological evidence for Levantine ships. The only pre-classical Aegean shipwreck to be excavated and studied by nautical archaeologists is that of a trading vessel, that sank on the southwestern Turkish coast. Greek builders strengthened their hulls transversely with internal framing comprised of preassembled “made-frames” alternating with top-timbers. The ancient seafaring cultures of the eastern Mediterranean each developed their own unique set of solutions to create elegant, sturdy, and capable boats and ships well suited to their environments and intended purposes.

Aeronautical archaeology is not a highly developed area of study in today's time. However, there is a phenomenal amount of data in the form of photograph, drawing, manuscripts, and manuals that demonstrates important contributions that aeronautical archaeology can provide to understanding historical perspectives, technological advancements, and period construction practices. Aircraft sites have tremendous archaeological possibility for providing a historic record to help in the understanding of the evolution of aeronautical technology. Although many restoration works have taken place, there is little documentation of the same, hence, it is possible that some valuable data have been lost. Approaches to aeronautical archaeology must continue to evolve and must be used for gaining a better understanding of the context and the times in which these objects were developed and used.

Mexico's underwater cultural heritage represents a vast and splendid universe varying from prehistoric to modern remains. But one of its main cultural riches is contained in its coastal and open-sea waters, where hundreds of ships have wrecked since the sixteenth century. Most of the underwater archaeological work undertaken since the 1980s has been in marine waters, especially the Gulf of Mexico. This article explains the discourse of maritime archaeology in Mexico through various phases such as the pre Colombian navigation, the European navigation, and stages of underwater recovery and underwater archaeology in the Mexican waters. In Mexico, the effective management of submerged heritage sites has proved difficult. Although it has no specific laws, Mexico has gained a better awareness regarding the importance of preserving its submerged cultural heritage and has signed and ratified diverse international treaties and the future looks promising.

The ship is the single central object for all migration and communication within the oceanic world. In the Pacific, a multitude of different vessel designs can be found, reflecting different seafaring cultures and locations and historical periods. The nineteenth century was the boom period for many different maritime trades in the wider Pacific. This article gives an overview of certain historical periods, discussing historical vessels. Maritime programs and institutions involved with maritime archaeology have increased in the Pacific over recent history. Since the Pacific is a large area and archaeological resources are limited, research questions need to be directed carefully. The challenges involved in this are logistical obstacles and safety considerations. Certainly, there is a potential to broaden the focus beyond shipwrecks alone. Maritime archaeology has a long way to travel in the Pacific.

The evolution of the factory in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was one of the most significant components of the process of industrialization, the impact of which is still being felt today. Early factories played a vital part in the development of artificial lighting, particularly in the use of gas lights. This role was not confined to the pioneering of the technology; also, perhaps more significantly, it altered public attitudes to these new forms of illumination. This chapter describes these technological and social developments, but also shows how the changes which new lighting technologies brought to the workplace were often not as many previous authors have assumed.

This chapter examines lake-dwellings in the Alpine region and their participation in long-distance trade, which linked various regions from central and northern Europe to the eastern Mediterranean, especially during the latter half of the second millennium BC . During the Early Bronze Age and Middle Bronze Age, a regional system of trading seems to have prevailed, and involved the circulation of goods such as amber and faience. At the beginning of Late Bronze Age I, Aegean-type/Near Eastern artefacts and/or the technology necessary to produce and/or imitate them locally appeared in central Adriatic regions and northern Italy, with the presence of turned pottery and vitreous materials, the latter also present to the north of the Alps. The reason must have been at least partly linked to the rapid development of copper-mining activities in the central-eastern Alps, and to the intensification of links between communities and regions along the Adriatic coast of Italy.

Silver vessels represent one of the most important categories of Sasanian art that has survived from antiquity. This chapter presents a survey of the different types of extant vessels—bowls, cups, plates, rhyta, vases and ewers, and “wine-boats.” The iconography of these vessels is described and the evidence of manufacture and craft organization is discussed. Techniques such as hammering, gilding, and niello are described and the significance of this body of material for our knowledge of the Sasanian elite is treated.

The management of a maritime cultural resource suggests control by a manager for appropriate treatment of the resource, with the objective of its protection and prevention. The advances in the technology have made underwater cultural heritage available not only to archaeologists and other scientists, but also to treasure salvors and the public. Underwater cultural heritage is protected to lesser or greater extents by various laws at the local, regional, state, national, and international levels. The United States has not ratified any of the conventions meant for the conservation of maritime heritage but has asserted sovereign rights in its territorial sea. The United States has nearly 1,800 areas in the marine environment that are reserved by federal, state, territorial, tribal, or local laws or regulations with the aim of long lasting protection of these areas. The effective management of submerged cultural resources is still a challenge to many communities and nations.

This article establishes the link between maritime archaeology and the industry. Many countries have laws and acts that insist that underwater cultural heritage belongs to the state, with few rewards to the finder. It is argued that this approach discourages responsible private companies from even looking, while individuals are still clandestinely pillaging the coastlines. This article presents a case study from Norway, that shows the archaeological and the industrial sector working together in the country. The pressure on underwater cultural heritage will only increase in the years to come, so more emphasis should be placed on the applications of underwater technology and that marine archaeological studies be performed as an important part of industrial projects. Marine archaeologists, companies involved in underwater construction projects, and cultural resource management agencies should start addressing this challenge as soon as possible to conserve the cultural heritage.

In modern times, the development of new survey, navigation, diving, and remotely operated vehicle technologies have made the location, exploration, and excavation of historic shipwrecks feasible to the general public. The debate on the value of underwater cultural heritage is recent and the issues of protecting underwater sites are now accepted. The diving community has been engaged in this debate for several decades, and a wide variety of viewpoints have developed. Museums focusing on underwater cultural heritage serve as platforms to foster discussions on submerged cultural resource protection. As any archaeological site, shipwrecks excite the general public. While museums provide a venue to share the story of the wrecks, or the historical contexts in which they existed, there are multiple ways to share this information with the public that will allow them a first-hand experience with a shipwreck. This notion has given rise to the concept of heritage tourism.

Maritime communities and traditions discussed within archaeological discourse, imply either small, contemporary, indigenous communities or folklore traditions from European or North American contexts. The article discusses small-scale tradition and local maritime practices. There are three main strands within this subject—oral histories and folklore traditions, studies of contemporary “traditional” boats, and ethnography that has a maritime locus of study. This article gives a review of these three sources of information on maritime communities and traditions, and addresses the history and context of each research field. Finally, it touches on new directions in studies of maritime communities and traditions, focusing on the notion of maritime heritage. The study of maritime traditions explores the uses to which maritime archaeological knowledge is put in the contemporary world and the cultural and even the socioeconomic politics behind many of the archaeological projects.

Maritime culture existed parallel to the agrarian mainstream. The term cultural landscape is partly applied into archaeological thinking. The first application of the specific concept of a maritime cultural landscape (also known as seascape, waterscape, island archeology etc.) dates to the middle of the 1970s. Any holistic view of maritime culture must be conceptual, administrative, material, or instinctive. Maritime cultural landscape is multilayered, not isolated from inland landscape, and was first published in English at the University of Copenhagen. It includes any hermeneutic kind of human relationship to the sea. The concept of Maritime cultural landscape has been used universally. There are many efforts currently made across the globe to make the maritime cultural landscape concept meaningful and enrich the appreciation of the maritime heritage.

‘Design’ is associated with the act of creation. The design of a ship encompasses the various ways of thinking about a ship according to its method and materials of construction, and according to the economic conditions of the period, the social context, the status of the shipbuilder, and so on. This article examines the characteristics of medieval naval architecture. The architectural approach to understand the design of the ship is marked on two principal levels: the actual structure of the hull, and the processes of building it. It explores the design methods used by the Mediterranean shipbuilders of the Middle Ages. The knowledge of design of a ship relies on collective dimension and through the restitution of the history of remains, the process of archaeological study leads to the history of the ship or the boat, to the point of its design.

Postmedieval maritime archaeology is focused more on naval ships than classical or medieval maritime archaeology. Merchant ship archaeology lived for many years in the shadow of naval ships. Ships and seafaring were an essential part of that growth and expansion, connecting remote parts of the world in a global economy. The period after 1400 is characterized by growth and bureaucratization in most of Europe. There were major developments in ship construction after 1400. In the Mediterranean, frame-based design and construction methods reached a stage of sophisticated geometrical precision. Mediterranean techniques began to be adopted along the Atlantic coast. The demographic and economic recovery of the fifteenth century and the globalization of seafaring lead to the use of a wider range of ship sizes. Privateering was a profitable enterprise in wartime. The growth of maritime archaeology was tied directly to popular cultural interest in perceived high points in national histories.

This chapter presents a comprehensive survey of Sasanian coinage from its beginnings to the Islamic conquest. Particular attention is paid to the changing details of iconography and the individuality of the crowns worn by each monarch. Minting techniques, mints, mint signatures, and denominations are discussed. Both precious and base metal coinage is described. Portraits, diadems, astral symbols, rims, legends and the evolution of the fire altar on the reverse are all treated.