International Journal of Nautical Archaeology Webinar Series

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