The Keith Muckelroy Memorial Award
In 2009 the NAS took over the administration of the Keith Muckelroy Memorial Award for published work on maritime archaeology which best reflects the pioneering ideas and scholarly aspirations of the late Keith Muckelroy from the Council for British Archaeology.
In 2009 six works were nominated. All were of a high standard, and the breadth and depth of their subject matter made them hard to compare. Three journal articles were nominated along with three longer monographs and for the next award the judges may be considering whether there should be two awards, one for a monograph and one for a journal article.
In ranking the submissions the judges followed the criterion that the winning entry should be the one that ‘best reflects the interests, aspirations, and high scholarly standards of Keith Muckelroy’. In other words, which would Keith himself have chosen?
The Runner Up for the 2009 Award were:
The Solutrean Atlantic Hypothesis: a View from the Ocean, by Kieran Westley and Justin Dix, was published in the Journal of the North Atlantic in 2008.
This article starts with a bold and exciting statement: 'The timing of the initial colonization of the Americas is one of the great unsolved questions of prehistoric archaeology'. The most radical of three suggested routes is of Europeans in boats following the pack-ice around the North Atlantic, living on marine mammals as they went. The article sets out to test this hypothesis using palaeo-environmental and palaeo-oceanographic data. Despite the many variables and unknowns, the authors argue convincingly that this explanation is unlikely. They conclude with a plea for archaeologists to take palaeo-environmental data into account, and 'be able to understand and integrate that information with the archaeological record in an effort to attain a more balanced view of prehistory. They are to be congratulated for a valuable contribution to a complex subject.
The Use of a High-Resolution 3D Chirp Sub-Bottom Profiler for the Reconstruction of the Shallow Water Archaeological Site of the Grace Dieu (1439), River Hamble, UK, by Ruth Plets, Justin Dix, Jon Adams, Jonathan Bull, Timothy Henstock, Martin Gutowski and Angus Best, was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science in 2009.
This article describes work to improve the geophysical recognition of buried waterlogged wood. Their results 'show that the remote acoustic characterization of wood is not yet an exact science, and that archaeological excavation will always remain an integral part of shipwreck investigations. However, acoustic imaging and characterization can aid archaeologists to target specific features, thereby optimizing excavation and minimizing its impact. Further, this method could prove to be ideal for the monitoring and management of known, excavated sites'. This paper highlights and explains clearly the advantages of applying scientific tools and techniques to aid in addressing archaeological questions.
Rigorous Reasoning, Reflexive Research and the Space for 'alternative Archaeologies'. Questions for Maritime Archaeological Heritage Management, by Jesse Ransley, was published in IJNA in 2007.
This paper offers a thought-provoking and original questioning of the nature of the maritime heritage, its archaeology and its management, and the interests and aspirations of the people involved. Though specifically focused on England, the questions have universal relevance. We hope that lateral thinking of this kind will stimulate self-examination, critical evaluation, and debate, and that it marks the start of an investigation into values, rather than an end.
Classic Ships of Islam: from Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean, byDionysius Agius, was published in 2007 by Brill.
This is an impressive survey of the traditional vessels of the region, their design, equipment, seamanship and technology. It is to be commended for integrating historical, ethnographical, literary, linguistic, iconographic, and archaeological sources, though the archaeological component is perhaps the least of these, and the reproduction of the images is generally poor. However, it deserves to be Highly Commended for the innovation and wide scope of the complex synthesis.
Old Ships of the New Gate. Volume 1, edited by Ufuk Kocabas, was published by Istanbul University Yenikapi Shipwrecks Project in 2008.
This is an extremely interesting first report on some astonishing and important maritime discoveries in the port of Istanbul. The book has been produced to a very high standard, within a short period of the discoveries, and provides a valuable summary of these important finds, in both Turkish and English. The illustrations, all in colour, are superb, with the Photomodeler images of each vessel particularly impressive. However, it is very much a work in progress, designed, in the editor's words, to present the 'raw data, ... avoiding as much as possible drawing conclusions'. We eagerly await future volumes, and take great pleasure in awarding it a Highly Commended certificate.
The Winner of the 2009 Keith Muckelroy Memorial Award was:
The Underwater Archaeology of Red Bay: Basque Shipbuilding and Whaling in the 16th Century, edited byRobert Grenier, Marc-André Bernier and Willis Stevens, with numerous contributors and an editorial team. The five-volumes set, in either English or French, was published by Parks Canada in 2007.
Keith strongly recognised the importance of good fieldwork and reporting as the foundation for the theories that could be constructed upon them, as his work on the Kennemerland and other sites demonstrates. The Red Bay report is exemplary. The breadth of material covered, and the quality of the research, is outstanding. demonstrating the highest standards of recording, survey, illustration, and interpretation, and the setting of findings into wider contexts. The illustrations are of good quality, with black-and white photos within the text, and a section of colour plates at the back of Volume 1. The wreck was discovered in 1978, but these 5 volumes were well worth waiting for. They join the small but happily-growing band of major shipwreck projects brought to published fruition. This report provides a multidisciplinary model for future generations of maritime archaeologists, methodologically and intellectually.
The judges were unanimous in declaring this is the winner of the Keith Muckelroy Memorial Award 2009.
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