The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology, Edited by Alexis Catsambis, Ben Ford and Donny L. Hamilton, Oxford UP '11, 1203 pages, ASIN #0195375173. Index, appendix, glossary, references at the end of each essay, b&w images sprinkled through text.
Quite obviously, land-based archaeology predated maritime archaeology because of the need for development of a reliable, long-lasting source of oxygen for underwater dives. And yet the editors write of 15th century "breath-holding dives" on two Roman vessels in Italy's Lake Nemi and the first use of a diving helmet in the next century on the same vessels.
So long before nautical archaeology became a separate branch of archaeology, the discipline was scoring major finds in the 19th and 20th centuries: Middle Kingdom boats in Egypt, part of a Roman ship dredged from a harbor at Marseille, the 10th century Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in England, various early vessels in Britain from the Bronze Age through the Roman period, Viking ships in Scandinavia, and dugouts around the world.
Such is the lore uncovered in this monumental volume, the latest in the Oxford Handbook Series, each offering "an authoritative and state-of-the-art survey of current thinking and research in a particular subject area." This particular book contains 46 essays from leading scholars and thinkers in the field.
The editors describe the four sections which comprise this impressive volume:
"The first section of the book deals with the best practices for locating, documenting, excavating, and analyzing submerged sites. This methodological foundation is followed by a sample of shipwreck studies from around the world as scholars trace the regional development of ships and seafaring. Chosen to balance the traditional core regions of maritime archaeology with important but lesser-studied areas, it aims at offering an international account of the study of submerged sites.
"Reflecting the growing number of scholars who study past maritime cultures, but not shipwrecks, the third section of the book addresses various aspects of the maritime landscape and ethnography above and below the water. The final chapters then approach maritime archaeology in a broader context, moving beyond archaeological sites to discuss the archaeological record in general within legal, preservation, and management frameworks."
Given its global, state-of-the-art approach, it's difficult to imagine that any active practitioner in this field couldn't make space on his bookshelf for this comprehensive volume.
Editor Donny L. Hamilton is Professor of Nautical Archaeology and Head of the Department of Archaeology at Texas A&M University. Ben Ford teaches anthropology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Alexis Catsambis is an underwater archaeologist for the U.S.Naval History & Heritage Command.
