Context is Everything: From Florida Back to Europe, a Personal Nautical History

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Artifacts are More Than Enough: Recentering the Artifact in Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Twenty-first century historical archaeology has numerous paths for studying 16th-century shipwrecks’ archaeological and nautical history. These paths are usually studied through the lens of local context rather than looking at individual artifacts in relation to other global shipwreck sites. In this analysis the focus is on the individual artifacts from the crew’s and passengers’ personal possessions of two distinct shipwrecks, the Emanuel Point I and Emanuel Point II, in direct correlation to the Mary Rose shipwreck. Specifically, this multi-faceted analysis further focuses on an individual brass scale weight set and an ivory manicure set. Using what is sometimes referred to as nano-archaeology, this study offers a brief glimpse into the symbolic and individualistic nature of personal possessions found on 16th-century shipwrecks. Consequently, research gathered through these individual personal possessions helps contribute to a comprehensive understanding of global 16th-century vessels’ material identity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Artifacts are More Than Enough: Recentering the Artifact in Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow