IJNA Webinar No.2: Is My Ship a Wreck? Exploring deposition variety

The second live IJNA Webinar took place on Wednesday 24th April 2019, at 14:00 (New York and Fort de France), 19:00 (London) 20:00 (Paris). 

When we think about nautical archaeology, our minds often jump to images of shipwrecks out to sea or along rocky coasts, as a result of misfortune or misadventure. But the remains that nautical archaeologists’ study in harbours, rivers, and estuaries have often been purposefully placed or abandoned, rather than arriving as a result of a catastrophe.

So other than wrecking at sea or sinking in battle, how does a ship become an archaeological deposit? Are there patterns in these rich assemblages of vessels that that can increase our knowledge of maritime activities and trade practices?

The webinar was hosted by the IJNA Editor, Miranda Richardson. Panel members included: 

Damian Robinson (Oxford Centre for Martime Archaeology)

‘The Depositional Contexts of the Ships from Thonis‐Heracleion, Egypt’

Damian Robinson

https://doi.org/10.1111/1095-9270.12321

 

Jean-Sebastien Guibert (University of the Antilles)

‘An Overview of Maritime Archaeological Research of the Colonial Period in the French Antilles’

Jean‐Sébastien Guibert, Max Guérout, Marc Guillaume, Annie Bolle, Fréderic Leroy, Laurence Serra

https://doi.org/10.1111/1095-9270.12336

 

Ellie Graham (Scape, University of St Andrews)

‘The Newshot Island Boat Graveyard: an assemblage of 19th‐century vessels on the Clyde’

Ellie Graham, Tom Dawson, Steve Liscoe, with contributions by Peter Dick

https://doi.org/10.1111/1095-9270.12332

 

Nathan Richards (East Carolina University)

‘The Meyer's Boatyard Vessel, Bermuda: the investigation of an M‐class gunboat built 1876’

Nathan T. Richards, Peter B. Campbell, Calvin Mires, Joseph C. Hoyt

https://doi.org/10.1111/1095-9270.12330

Our line-up of fascinating panelists explored these questions and discussed their research. Each of the panel members had recently published an article in the IJNA, which was made free to download before and after the webinar. The webinar is now available on our YouTube Channel to watch alongside the previous webinar. 

IJNA Webinar No.1: The Archaeology of World War Battleships

The first live IJNA Webinar took place on Wednesday 23rd January at 10.00 (London), 11.00 (Paris), 19.00 (Tokyo) and 21.00 (Sydney) on "The Archaeology of World War Battleships".

A recording of the webinar can now be viewed below or on our YouTube Channel



The webinar was hosted by the IJNA Editor, Miranda Richardson and IJNA Advisory Editor, Dr Jun Kimura. Panel members were intended to be recent IJNA authors, Dr Innes McCartney, Kieran Hosty and Yumiko Nakanishi. Unfortunately Yumiko Nakanishi was unable to present at the last minute and so her presentation was kindly delivered by Dr Jun Kimura. The 100 viewers were able to ask questions of the panel members.


The remains of the First and Second World Wars at sea form a significant part of the ocean’s underwater cultural heritage. Battleship wrecks hold a particular position within this assemblage. As archaeological artefacts they can inform research on naval battles and the conduct of war, technological change, and are a material reflection of world political power dynamics, as well as holding material relating to the lives of those aboard. At the same time, they may be war graves, whether this is recognized in law or not, and, once their locations are identified, sites of commemoration with meaning for the descendants of those lost and the wider public on all sides of these conflicts. Beyond archaeological research, the management of these very particular shared heritage remains, and the conservation of metal wrecks in general holds specific challenges.

In this webinar the panel briefly presented their work with such wrecks (the articles are available Open Access here - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/10959270/2018/47/2, until the end of January 2019.


The IJNA Webinar Series is supported by the Honor Frost Foundation