Wisconsin’s Underwater Heritage: The Role of Avocational Maritime Archaeology in Wisconsin

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "What’s in a Name? Discussions of Terminology, Theory and Infrastructure of Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Over the last thirty years, the Maritime Preservation Program at the Wisconsin Historical Society has developed productive long-term relationships with several avocational maritime archaeological organizations in the Great Lakes region. A cornerstone of the Maritime Program is education and training in the form of continued educational experiences for local avocational archaeologists and volunteer divers. Training volunteer divers in underwater archaeological methods has allowed these regional avocational organizations to implement their own underwater archaeological survey projects and aid Society archaeologists with projects throughout Wisconsin waters. Through continued outreach and education, these organizations, along with other members of the community, have helped locate, identify, document, and protect many of Wisconsin’s most recent submerged archaeological projects. This paper discusses the long-term effects of these partnerships and the roll these avocational organizations can continue to fill in the future of Great Lakes maritime archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• What’s in a Name? Discussions of Terminology, Theory and Infrastructure of Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology