Abstract
Delivering the Deep is a robust and wide-ranging edited volume which showcases a variety of approaches to the watery past while keeping a clear eye on a multitude of present and future threats to maritime resources. The collection arose from the seventh International Congress for Underwater Archaeology (IKUWA 7), held in Helsinki, Finland, in 2022. The overall goals of the conference, reflected in the papers selected for the edited volume, were to underscore the role maritime scholars play in the broader field of archaeology, and to demonstrate the interplay between maritime archaeology, cultural heritage and the human and environmental challenges facing our oceans and coastlines today. The volume also reflects the global challenge of COVID-19. IKUWA 7, originally scheduled for 2020, was postponed until 2022, and the prevalence of desk-based research and re-evaluations of previous excavations implies another, unspoken, context for the work.
Delivering the Deep is organized around five themes: ‘Maritime Cultural Landscapes’, ‘Interpreting Maritime Objects and Representations’, ‘Archaeology of Ships and Boats’, ‘Interpreting Underwater Sites’ and ‘Underwater Cultural Heritage Management and Public Engagement’. The themes may not push the boundaries of the field, but their treatment in many of the chapters is sophisticated; this is not a collection of dry site reports and minutely detailed artefact analyses, but rather one of probing re-contextualisations of existing work and long-held assumptions in the field. The chapters wander widely in terms of time period, geography and topic, ranging from a survey of Neolithic Irish log boats to a spatial reconstruction of a fifteenth-century Danish–Norwegian warship as an instrument of both martial and soft royal power, to a discussion of a ‘virtual heritage experience’ which allows players to experience landing a tank in a practice exercise for D-Day held in 1944, and then virtually explore the submerged remains of one of those tanks lost during the exercise.
Geographically, the chapters skew towards the Mediterranean, but the volume also includes pieces on Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. There is a lone entry from the Americas, which reconstructs the tactical considerations of British naval forces during the 1741 siege of Cartagena, Colombia, but the lack of coverage outside of Europe and the Mediterranean is a weakness of the collection. Given the range of subject matter, time period and methodological approach, the book need not be read cover to cover, but rather can be used as a reference text.
As a whole, however, the collection contains a multitude of creative, higher-order analyses of varying approaches to the past and debates about the place of the humanities in modern society that are thought provoking no matter the discipline of the reader. In her piece on ancient Greek and Roman statuary found at sea, for example, Katerina Velentza moves beyond documenting how, when and where statues were located. Instead, she writes about the persistence of narrative tropes around loss and rediscovery from Roman, Medieval and long nineteenth-century written sources through today. She argues that these enduring tropes, such as the feeling of intense emotion, mystery and a sense of adventure, influence the ways in which archaeological discovery is experienced and can be harnessed by archaeologists to build public engagement.
Other pieces provide new perspectives on existing fields of historical and archaeological inquiry. Heidi E. Vink and Tobias B. Skowronek's contribution on the eighteenth-century shipwreck Paal 27.1, found after it was dislodged by storm surge on the coast of the Dutch island of Terschelling, argues for expanding the conceptualisation of the slave trade and the material culture associated with it. The wreck contained a number of brass rods known from historical records to have been used exclusively in the slave trade, but which have only rarely been found in shipwreck contexts. Metallurgical analysis conducted by the authors suggested a Swedish copper source and German calamine ore source, reinforcing the deep infiltration of slave-trade related activities outside of the regions traditionally associated with the trade. Alistair Byford-Bates, Ben Saunders and Euan McNeill's chapter on the recovery and analysis of a Second World War-era Fairey Barracuda also highlights the ways in which archaeology can enrich and challenge historical approaches. No complete extant Barracudas otherwise exist, and their work has shown noteworthy variations between the construction of the recovered aircraft and design drawings, which they suggest illustrate the realities of wartime manufacture, inexperienced workforces and inspection teams, and the convoluted object life-histories of component parts from various manufacturers with jumbled construction timelines.
Ultimately, this volume is a self-aware assessment of maritime archaeology's place in both archaeology and maritime studies more broadly, including discussions of the ways in which maritime cultural resources are affected by – and can affect – broader socio-environmental challenges. Many of the entries, even those not explicitly focused on the impact of climate change, deep sea resource extraction and offshore construction, still grapple with the accelerating damage to and loss of submerged cultural resources as a result of these phenomena. However, others document tackling these issues head on: Nicolas Bigourdan's chapter on preventive archaeology in France, for example, lays out a multi-decade approach to working with industry to identify, record and, when possible, excavate, sites at risk of destruction, integrating archaeologists as key stakeholders in ‘Blue Growth’ initiatives.
While few of the chapters in this book make explicit use of historical sources, its broader message may be useful to maritime historians. It offers a blueprint for thinking critically about the place of a discipline in wider contexts, and interrogates different approaches that practitioners can take to ensure the survival of a discipline. Whether it be through multi-generational discussions of loss and rediscovery, educational video games and virtual reality experiences that put the public ‘in the shoes’ of historical figures and archaeological divers, or even artefact-aided poetry and creative writing sessions aimed at building associations and fostering a sense of connectivity to a tangible past, this volume suggests that we need not be limited in how we approach and disseminate our work to the public, or in how we continue to reaffirm the importance of our shared maritime past while contributing to the shaping of the future of our oceans.