How Stable is a Wooden Shipwreck? An Interdisciplinary Approach for Evaluating Shipwreck Stability

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Depending on the environmental parameters of an aquatic system, wooden shipwrecks undergo site formation processes that contribute to their overall deterioration and, occasionally, the complete loss of structures from the archaeological record. Considering our aquatic systems are rapidly changing due to climate change and other anthropogenic forces it is important to work toward understanding how interconnected archaeological site formation processes contribute to the structural stability of a wooden shipwreck. This paper outlines an investigation into shipwreck stability using a case study site in the Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary. The project uses interdisciplinary approaches from archaeology, microbial ecology, hydrology, and geospatial sciences to work toward evaluating and quantifying wooden shipwreck degradation. This paper provides an overview of research objectives, disciplinary and interdisciplinary methodologies, anticipated results, and the significance of characterizing and evaluating wooden shipwreck degradation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow