Page 43 - Kennemerland VOC ship, 1664 - Published Reports

The Init~rnationalJournal of Nautical Auchaeology and Underwater Exploration (19751, 4.2: 173-190
A systematic approach to the investigation of scattered wreck sites
Keith Mwkelrop
Institute of Maritime Archaeology, St. Andrews, Fife
The problem posed
Although the last two decades have seen great
progress in underwater archaeology, and
especially in the development of equipment
for use in excavation on the sea floor, there
has been remarkably little concern with the
formulation of standard modes of procedure
specifically designed to deal with the peculiar
problems of marine sites. Such discussion as
has appeared has been concerned primarily
with the problems posed by Mediterranean
sites (e.g. Bass, 1966: 132-50). In conventional
archaeology there is now a large body of
general theory concerning the most satis-
stage, as with a land site, must be a detailed prospecting to gain some idea of the extent and potential of the site. If, after all this, it still appears to warrant full investigation, then excavation is called for. In terms of procedure, the director is now faced with two problems; firstly, what is the optimum level of accuracy required when recording the distribution of artefacts on the sea-bed, and secondly, how does one interpret these distributions once they have been recorded ‘1 I hope that no-one today would question that some mapping of the excavated deposits is essential; in the wise words of Sir Mortimer Wheeler: ‘. . . from the moment when an
factory ways of tackling a site (Coles, 1973:
130-55), and anyone who commenced an archaeological excavator lifts the first shovel-
excavation by digging blindly into the site would be roundly condemned by all respons- ible observers. When a competent modern archaeologist undertakes an excavation, a good deal of prospecting and testing is done before a sod is turned, and the digging itself is then ordered according to a predetermined design intended to uncover the maximum of information from the site. It is time that more attention was given to developing similar systematic procedures for underwater sites; the present paper seeks to contribute towards this goal by proposing a programme for dealing with scattered wreck sites, probably the most commonly investigated type of site at present.
The investigation of a scattered wreck site, by which I mean one on which no coherent ship’s structure has survived, obviously commences the moment the remains are discovered. For the present, it is assumed that the site has been found, either accidentally or as a result of a search, and that the necessary documentary research is in hand. The next
ful of earth, he has begun a process of destruction for which the only compensation is a complete and immediate record’ (Wheeler, 1968: 295). The substitution of the phrase ‘airlift-ful of sea-bed’ for ‘shovelful of earth’ does not alter the force of the statement. However, further thought is needed to define what constitutes a complete record; further- more, it is difficult to justify devoting much effort and expenditure on this recording if one privately regards the results as totally meaningless. I first faced these problems when considering the site of the Kennernerland in the Out Skerries, Shetland Isles, and out of the studies which have resulted I have formulated a procedure which 1 believe might profitably be applied to most similar sites.
The basic proposition is that one must have an explicitly formulated system of analysis by which to investigate the signific- ance of the sea-bed distribution of material. In a scientificdiscipline there is little room for personal opinions reached only by intuition, involving either ex cathedra statements that
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