While terrestrial archaeology has engaged with contemporary philosophy, maritime archaeology has remained in comparative disciplinary or subdisciplinary isolation. However, the issues that humans face in the Anthropocene from global warming to global pandemics call for transdisciplinary cooperation, and for thinking together beyond the confines of the human-centered philosophical tradition. Growing areas such as the blue humanities and oceanic thinking draw directly on our maritime past, even as they ponder the future. Theoretically engaged maritime archaeologists could contribute significantly to these areas of thought, as this volume demonstrates. The essays collected here serve as jumping off point, which opens new ways for maritime archaeologists to engage with the most important problems of our time and to benefit from the new insights offered by object-oriented and flat ontologies. The book gathers the analytical thinking of archaeologists, philosophers, marine biologists, and media theorists, and pushes those observations deep into the maritime realm.
The contributions then branch out, like tentacles or corals, reaching into the lessons of oil spills, cephalopod hideouts, shipwreck literature, ruined monuments, and beached plastics. The volume concludes with a series of critical responses to these papers, which pushes the dialogue into new areas of inquiry. Taken as a whole, the volume emphasizes that the study of the past is more relevant than ever because serious consideration of our watery world and all its inhabitants is increasingly necessary for our collective survival. This volume takes the first steps toward this reckoning and, as such, it promises to be an important new contribution to lecture and conference halls around the world where oceans and the Anthropocene are under study.
Edited volume featuring transdisciplinary perspectives on oceanic artifacts.
| Acknowledgements |
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9 | (2) |
| Prelude: A History of Maritime Archaeological Thought |
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11 | (24) |
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1 Collapse, Cataclysm, and Eruption: Alien Archaeologies for the Anthropocene |
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35 | (22) |
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2 The Shipwreck of Theseus: Philosophy and Maritime Archaeology |
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57 | (18) |
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3 What Washes Up on the Beach: Shipwreck, Literary Culture, and Objects of Interpretation |
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75 | (12) |
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4 An Anthropocene Section |
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87 | (18) |
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5 Maritime Christening: Anthropomorphism and the Engender(bend)ing of Metaphor |
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105 | (18) |
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6 Complicit Objects and New Materialist Praxis |
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123 | (24) |
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7 Assemblage Theory and the Mediative Practice of Ship Hull Reuse |
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147 | (22) |
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8 'The Biggest Museum Gallery in the Whole World': Virtual Excavation and the Musealization of the Seafloor |
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169 | (18) |
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9 Naufragic Architecture in the Anthropocene |
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187 | (18) |
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10 Octopodology and Dark Amphorae: Alien Archaeologies, Reflexivity, and the Non-Human Afterlives of Objects in the Sea |
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205 | (26) |
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231 | (20) |
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251 | (18) |
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13 Contemporary Philosophies for Maritime Archaeology: A Response |
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269 | (10) |
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14 OOO, Archaeology, and the Anthropocene. Comments on Maritime Archaeology and Anthropocene Philosophy |
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279 | (30) |
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15 Compelled by Things: A Response to Contemporary Philosophy for Maritime Archaeology |
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309 | (8) |
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16 Theory at Sea. Some Reflections from the Gunwale |
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317 | (18) |
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| Conclusion: If on a Winter's Night a Ship Wrecks |
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335 | (16) |
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| Author Biographies |
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351 | |
Sara Rich is Assistant Professor of Honors at Coastal Carolina University. She is an archaeologist, art historian, artist, and author of speculative fiction. She has directed underwater archaeological campaigns on shipwrecks and submerged settlements in the Mediterranean, English Channel, and North Atlantic, and is now directing her attention to the West Atlantic.
Her new book, Shipwreck Hauntography: Underwater Ruins and the Uncanny, was published by Amsterdam University Press in 2021. An open-access book, Closer to Dust, was released from Punctum Press, also in 2021. Sara is also author of Shipwrecks and Provenance (2018) and Cedar Forests, Cedar Ships (2017), both published by Archaeopress. In danger of turning landlubber, her latest book, Mushroom, will soon be available in the Bloomsbury series Object Lessons. Peter B. Campbell is Lecturer in Cultural Heritage Under Threat at Cranfield University. He received his PhD in Archaeology from the Centre for Maritime Studies at the University of Southampton and MA in Maritime Studies from East Carolina University. He served as a research fellow at the British School at Rome from 2017-2018 and Assistant Director for Archaeology and Archaeological Science from 2018-2020.
His research broadly examines maritime connectivity and he has directed archaeological projects in seven countries, primarily in the Mediterranean, including co-directing the Egadi Islands Survey Project (Italy) and Fournoi Underwater Survey (Greece), but also research in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Beyond maritime connectivity, Peter studies the illicit antiquities trade, research which has been used in policy papers and presented to the OSCE, INTERPOL, and UN/UNESCO. Peter is active in public engagement, publishing articles in Bloomberg, New York Times, and the Guardian, as well as recently appearing on BBC, CNN, History Channel, Discovery, and National Geographic.
