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Definition: marine archaeology from Cambridge Dictionary of Human Biology and Evolution

Underwater archaeology; literally, in salt water. Marine archaeology is important not only for the information revealed by shipwrecks, but also because many occupation coastal sites were inundated at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. Now aka freshwater archaeology.

UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY

From Encyclopedia of Archaeology
Underwater archaeology differs from terrestrial archaeology only in its requirements for different tools and techniques. Their aims are identical. Underwater archaeology differs from terrestrial archaeology only in its requirements for different tools and techniques. Their aims are identical. The underwater archaeologist, unless using robotic devices operated remotely from the surface, must dive, which requires carrying a tank of compressed air or being tethered to the surface with an air hose in order to breath. The development in the 1940s of modern scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) freed divers from hoses, helmets, and cumbersome diving suits, providing the freedom and agility required for delicate archaeological work. Even scuba, however, cannot free the underwater archaeologist from the physiological limits of diving caused by the weight, or pressure, of water, which increases as depth increases. As humans descend, they must breathe air at a pressure equal to…
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An ROV named ZEUS, the eight-ton, 205...
Technology developed by the military, the telecommunications industry, and oil and gas interests has been adapted to allow the conduct of high-precision archaeological survey and excavation on the deep ocean floor, hundreds of meters below the surface. Side-scan sonar and other exploration tools can…
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Full text Article MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY

From Encyclopedia of Archaeology
This article discusses the beginnings of maritime archaeology as a discipline and the development of legislation to protect underwater cultural heritage. The different developments in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean is discussed and the differences in dealing with very early sites, compared…
| 5,563 words
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Full text Article UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY

From Encyclopedia of Archaeology
Excavators airlift sediment from...
Underwater archaeology differs from terrestrial archaeology only in its requirements for different tools and techniques. Their aims are identical. Underwater archaeology differs from terrestrial archaeology only in its requirements for different tools and techniques. Their aims are identical. The…
| 1,892 words , 4 images
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Full text Article marine and underwater archaeology.

From The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
Humankind's artefacts litter the seabed, partly as a result of mercantile and naval activities, but also because landscapes have become submerged. This submergence is not only the result of the sea level rising as the ice caps melted at the end of last glaciation 20,000 years ago, but also a result…
| 1,229 words
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Full text Article archaeology, underwater

From The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization
archaeology, underwater Excavation of a...
The potential richness of the sea for salvage or accidental finding of sunken valuables was recognized from earliest times, but the possibility of defining meaningful groups of wrecked material or of interpreting submerged sites scarcely predates the widespread adoption of underwater…
| 573 words , 1 image
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Full text Article AI spots shipwrecks from the ocean surface – and even from the air (July 2021)

From The Conversation: An Independent Source of Analysis from Academic Researchers
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. In collaboration with the United States Navy’s Underwater Archaeology Branch, I taught a computer how to recognize shipwrecks on the ocean floor from scans taken by aircraft and ships on the surface. The computer model we created is…
| 615 words
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Full text Article Ballard, Robert D(uane)

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born 1942, Wichita, Kan., U.S.) U.S. oceanographer and marine geologist. He grew up near San Diego, Calif. As a marine scientist at the Woods Hole (Mass.) Oceanographic Research Institution, he pioneered the use of deep-diving submersibles, participated in the first manned exploration of the…
| 169 words
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Full text Article Vasa,

From The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
a 64-gun wooden warship, just over 45 metres (147 ft) in length, built at Stockholm to the order of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, and the only surviving example of the complete hull of a 17th-century warship. On 10 August 1628 she sank in Stockholm harbour on her maiden voyage after a strong…
| 213 words
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Full text Article Shipwrecks

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present Full text Article A-Z Entries
An invaluable source of data for archaeologists, shipwrecks provide information on many aspects of trade and daily life. Nearly three-quarters of the earth's surface is covered by water. Water at various times in history has been both a barrier and an aide to civilization. Many of the earliest…
| 540 words
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Full text Article Mary Rose,

From The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
a ‘great ship’ of 600 tons, having an armament of about twenty heavy and 60 light guns and a complement of 415. She was built for Henry VIII and named in honour of his sister Mary Tudor. This ship, the first of her name in the British Navy, took part in the first (1512–14) and second (1522–5) French…
| 420 words
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