Oceanographic Processes Relating to the Regional Variation of Shipwreck Preservation

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Nuts and Bolts of Ships: The J. Richard Steffy Ship Reconstruction Laboratory and the future of the archaeology of Shipbuilding" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Shipwreck preservation varies based on the location of the shipwreck and materials of the ship itself. Biological, chemical, and physical processes all affect the in situ preservation of shipwrecks with differences in temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, salinity, and scouring playing the largest roles in preservation variability. In situ preservation methods can sometimes be as effective as surface conservation of shipwrecks. The majority of past shipwreck degradation studies have looked at wood preservation. Worldwide, shipworms, soft-rot fungi, tunneling bacteria, and erosion bacteria degrade submerged organic matter, posing a threat to underwater cultural heritage sites. Shipwrecks in anoxic waters or buried in anoxic sediments are better and longer preserved than in any other inundated conditions. The Baltic and Black Seas provide the best conditions for shipwreck preservation. The Baltic combines cold waters with anoxic sediments, while the Black Sea maintains large anoxic bottom water regions as well as anoxic sediment conditions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• The Nuts and Bolts of Ships: The J. Richard Steffy Ship Reconstruction Laboratory and the future of the archaeology of Shipbuilding

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 119