Shipping Mishaps and the Maritime Cultural Landscape

Abstract

Above all, it should be noted that the primary object of study is man [sic] … and not the ships, cargoes, fittings or instruments with which the researcher is immediately confronted. Archaeology is not the study of objects simply for themselves, but rather for the insight they give into people who made or used them … maritime archaeology is concerned with all aspects of maritime culture; not just technical matters, but also social, economic, political, religious and a host of other aspects. Muckelroy (1978: 4) Since the 1980s, there has been an ongoing dialogue within maritime archaeology encouraging a shift away from its vessel-focused concerns towards an anthropo-logical interest in the wider maritime world (Gould 1983). Despite this, there has until recently been a dogged persistence of the traditional culture-historical approach towards vessels and their contents (or their archaeological remnants), and the narrow technological, economic and social contexts of their operation and use. In this older conception, behaviours surrounding the shipping mishap event (mostly wrecking) are usually viewed in isolation and for their historical value, or as indicators of the transformation of the vessel from systemic to archaeological context. Subsequent cultural interactions with the remains of vessels or surrounding environments are primarily considered as site formation processes altering the integrity of the site, or as subjects of concern for cultural resource managers, rather than as part of a continuum of cultural activities and connections (Gibbs and Duncan 2015). Non-wreck components of the maritime world have suffered similar treatment, often being recorded without strong connection or contextualization within the wider cultural system or landscape past or present. In part, the shape of maritime archaeology has been a function of the constraints of practitioners working within particular legislative or corporate structures (i.e. the role of the heritage agency or museum-based archaeologists is to record and protect shipwrecks rather than do wider research), or simply that shipwrecks have been prioritized as the most threatened form of maritime site. The greater set of maritime sites, especially those on land or in intertidal zones, also often fall into a grey area of responsibility with other heritage agencies, groups or academic subdisciplines with their own priorities. The consequence is that for many areas, there are now rich