The Archaeology Of Piracy: In The Wake Of 20 Years Of Research

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

At the beginning of the twenty first century historical archaeologists studying so-called illicit behavior had focused on the material manifestations of prostitution, stills for making “moonshine,” and the nuanced evidence for smuggling. Discussions of pirates and piracy received short shrift in academic literature and were limited to the identification of shipwreck sites associated with pirates (e.g., Speaker, Whydah, and Queen Anne’s Revenge). We were charged with the task of exploring the possible parameters of an “archaeology of piracy.” Twenty years and three bestselling books later it appears we were successful. This is a retrospective on where we were, where we are, and the future of “pirate archaeology.”

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow