The Salvage Of The Manila Galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción: Archaeology Or Treasure Hunting?

Summary

This is an abstract from the "POSTER Session 3: Material Culture and Site Studies" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Salvage companies may use the guise of archaeology to excavate shipwrecks for their own profits but may not abide by archaeological methods or ethical principles. One shipwreck that was salvaged by companies was the Manila galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, which wrecked in 1638 off the coast of Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Concepción was destined for Acapulco, Mexico, carrying valuable trade goods such as porcelain, storage jars, and gold jewelry from Manila, Philippines. Starting in the late 1980s, the CNMI issued contracts for two salvage companies, Pacific Sea Resources Inc. and Proa Inc., to recover artifacts archaeologically. However, there is missing archaeological information on the shipwreck from the salvage companies. An examination and comparison of the salvage companies’ projects to archaeological methods and ethical principles set by professional associations reveals issues in the salvage of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• POSTER Session 3: Material Culture and Site Studies

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 261