Understanding How To Interpret UW Riverine And Marine Magnetic Targets For Site Identification And Protection - Early Examples.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Needle, Meet Haystack: The Role of Magnetometers in Underwater Archaeological Research and the Evolution of Interpreting Magnetic Data for Cultural Resource Investigations", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The use of magnetometers in terrestrial archaeology began as early as post-Second World War. It wasn't until the 1970s that these instruments were increasingly adapted for use in underwater (UW) archaeology. The adoption of magnetometers for archaeological survey purposes was facilitated by State and Federal land/water management agencies who required their use in surveys mandated by cultural resource manangement (CRM) laws - Archaeological Resource Protection Act (1974); the Abandoned Shipwreck Act (1987), etc. This paper discusses illustrative historical uses of magnetometers in both riverine and marine settings primarily in Texas and the northern Gulf of Mexico. Texas was a principal location for the development of magnetic survey procedures and applications on high-profile shipwrecks sites such as the 1554 Flota wrecks off South Padre Island. The examples presented here are not as dramatic as those sites but they illustrate similar problems and solutions in the early use of magnetometers in UW archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Needle, Meet Haystack: The Role of Magnetometers in Underwater Archaeological Research and the Evolution of Interpreting Magnetic Data for Cultural Resource Investigations

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow