The Smithsonian and Underwater Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Underwater Archaeology In The 21st Century: From Humble Beginnings To Integration With Anthropology And Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Smithsonian has engaged in underwater archaeology and its forebears since the 1950s, starting with Dr. Mendel Peterson’s explorations of multiple Caribbean shipwrecks. In the mid-1970s, the Smithsonian and US Navy recovered propulsion machinery from the early propeller steamboat Indiana (1848) in Lake Superior. Expeditions resumed in the early 1990s back to Lake Superior to more fully document the Indiana wreck, followed by expeditions to Hanalei Bay, Kauai to locate, survey and excavate the wreck of Ha’aheo ‘o Hawai‘i(ex-Cleopatra’s Barge), the Royal Yacht of Hawaiian King Kamehameha II. During this period, the Smithsonian repatriated ca. 5,000 artifacts from Peterson’s Bermuda wreck research to the Bermuda National Museum. Permission to survey for an American slaveship that wrecked with human cargo on a Middle Passage voyage off the coast of Cuba was requested but not permitted. The Smithsonian continues to repatriate accessioned artifacts from various wrecksites around the world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Underwater Archaeology In The 21st Century: From Humble Beginnings To Integration With Anthropology And Archaeology

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow