The set of inscriptions known as the Naval Inventories of Athens (IG II2 1604–IG II2 1632) provide a wealth of information regarding the state of the Athenian navy in the fourth century BC. The inscriptions include the names of the triremes, of which 279 unique cases are preserved. This paper was developed around two questions: What kinds of names did Athenians choose for their...
The SS Waratah was lost with all 211 lives circa 27 July 1909 off the South African eastern coast, for reasons unknown, and the wreck has not been found despite numerous searches at the time and into the present. The purpose of this paper is to identify possible sinking locations based on the interaction of meteorological fronts, Agulhas current, and bathymetric features. The...
The Blake Plateau and the adjacent waters and sea beds of the U.S. continental shelf and Blake Ridge are a long-standing water highway, a place of significant events and common marine activities from centuries past to the present. It has scientific significance as well as cultural meaning, especially within the context of the Gullah/Geechee people of the region whose ancestors...
In 2012 a program to investigate the management of underwater cultural heritage (UCH) related to the WWII battle for Saipan was developed with several collaborative partners. The program was conceptualized in response to the creation of the WWII Battle for Saipan Underwater Heritage Trail that launched in 2010 (McKinnon and Carrell in J Maritime Archaeol 10(1):11–27, 2015). With...
Zuytdorp is one of four known Dutch East India Company shipwrecks off the western Australian coast. Believed to have foundered in the fall of 1712, its wreck site was located in 1927 on a remote stretch of the central western Australian coast. Since its identification in 1958, the site has been investigated during several archaeological expeditions. The cause of Zuytdorp’s...
Operation Hailstone, conducted on 17–18 February 1944, was a major battle between the United States fast carrier Task Force 58 against the forward operating naval base of the Imperial Japanese Navy at Truk Lagoon (modern-day Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia). The battle saw devastating losses for the Japanese forces with over 4500 casualties, over 50 ships sunk and over 250...
With four decades of WWII underwater archaeology publications, the time is nigh to create a comprehensive bibliography and conduct an analysis of trends within the growing subfield. This paper presents a decade-by-decade analysis of academic publications accessible through a number of search engines and databases. It analyzes the papers through the categories of author gender...
This article examines the effective management and governance of World War II shipwrecks with a particular focus on two Australian wartime wrecks in Timor-Leste, HMAS Voyager and HMAS Armidale. With reference to international frameworks such as the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, as well as Timor-Leste’s evolving domestic regulations...
Archaeological and historical sailing modeling has become an increasingly productive field of study in the twenty-first century. The research has largely concentrated on methodological development, yet comparisons between models have so far been lacking. In this paper we juxtapose two directed sailing models, Digital Navigator and qtVlm, on a route from East Java to South Sumatra...
Underwater excavations require an immense amount of logistics and have inherent time limitations. Underwater challenges such as nitrogen toxicity, underwater color change, and dive time limits increase with working depths, affecting the interpretation of archaeological contexts. Thus, underwater excavations involve methods and approaches to extract the maximum information from...
The Early and Middle Neolithic (3500–2300 [Before Current Era] BCE) Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) was a critical component of the historical trajectory of Scandinavia’s maritime history. The hunter-gatherer societies of the PWC were highly adapted to maritime environments, and they fished, hunted, travelled, and traded across great distances over water. Exactly what boat types they...
The archaeological evidence from the Nanhai No.1 shipwreck provides tangible evidence for the study of maritime trade during the Song Dynasty, revealing the presence of a significant amount of smuggled metal in the cargo, suggesting possible involvement in smuggling activities. Merchants may have used tactics such as under-reporting and clandestine transportation of prohibited...
One of the great recent discoveries in maritime archaeology was the discovery, in 2015, of a hitherto unknown shipyard in the Cilicia Region. Approximately 294 slipways/shipsheds were found on Dana Island (Pitusu-Pityoussa) in eastern Rough Cilicia (Cilicia Trachea), on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Recent studies carried out in 2023 on the island have added to our knowledge...
This article seeks to complement efforts to summarize information on the exceptional natural significance of the Emperor Seamounts. The human history of the Emperor Seamounts is culturally diverse and spans thousands of years. This ranges from indigenous cultures to the period of European colonial exploration and expansion to the rise of the modern global economy and its impact...
During winter storms in 2014 and 2017, strong waves exposed hundreds of timbers and artefacts at the Belinho beach, in the North of Portugal. These ship remains were later discovered to belong to a 16th-century shipwreck, probably originating from Northern Europe. This paper aims to discuss the importance of cargo analysis through the study of the material culture associated with...
This study demonstrates the successful use of a single-channel chirp system mounted on an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) for detecting and mapping a partly buried medieval ship found in water approximately one meter (m) deep in a dynamic, intertidal environment at Avaldsnes, south-western Norway. The ASV's fast mobilization and access to areas otherwise difficult to reach...