National Park Service Battlefield Survey of War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Guam: A Biogeographic and Maritime Cultural Landscape Exploration

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The National Park Service Submerged Resources Center and Ocean and Coastal Resources Branch conducted a joint archaeological and ecological underwater battlefield survey in 2023 of War in the Pacific National Historical Park, funded by NOAA OER. Data collected during this study was used to conduct archaeological battlefield analyses to identify war materiel, reconstruct the battlescapes using military terrain analyses, characterize cultural changes associated with the invasion, and to assess potential ecosystem impacts caused from blast damage to the reef, which also serves as a coastal protection mechanism. The project consisted of two fieldwork campaigns, one focused primarily on the collection of remote sensing data, including side scan sonar, magnetometer, multi-beam, and coastal elevation data. The second fieldwork campaign focused on diver investigations of potential cultural resources identified during the remote sensing work. This presentation discusses the methodology and results of this battlefield survey.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow