Lessons that Count: The La Belle Project, A Large-Scale Excavation in the Gulf of Mexico

Summary

In 1686, the French exploration vessel La Belle went down in Matagora Bay off the coast of what is now Texas. Three-hundred and ten years later, the small 45-ton vessel resurfaced from the bottom of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico under the trowels of underwater archaeologists working inside a coffer dam. Drawing from the experience of other previous large-scale excavations, Texas Historical Society’s La Belle project provided new innovations of its own. This paper will discuss various challenges and successes of the project as part of the session on large-scale underwater excavations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• Lessons That Count: What We Have Learned From Large, Multi-Year Underwater Excavations

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-2,06