Comments on: Have you found any gold yet? Misconceptions in Maritime Archaeology

By: Andrew Thompson

Andrew Thompson — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 15:49:32 +0000

There is a definite difference between Marine archaeologists and treasure hunters.
Treasure hunters are out solely to research and find wrecks that contained gold, silver or other precious objects for their own profit. There is some logic to this as recovering these objects from deep water is an expensive, dangerous and time consuming work. They have no concerns about destroying the wreck to access the cargo.
I am sure that archaeologists would love to find and excavate a sunken Spanish galleon, though they would not be driven by greed but by what they could discover about the ship and the lives of those aboard. Their interest would be to save as much of the structure as possible.

By: Danielle Newman

Danielle Newman — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 13:48:52 +0000

That is a great way of thinking about it. I’m a diver myself, which is what brought about my interest in maritime archaeology, but now my research keeps me firmly on dry land!

By: Vicente Cortez

Vicente Cortez — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 04:39:30 +0000

Archaeologists are not treasure hunters… and underwater archaeologist are not necessarily divers. I am an archaeologist interested in underwater and maritime archaeology. When colleagues ask me if I am a diver, I answer them: “Not exactly, I am an archaeologist who had to learn scuba diving in order to participate in underwater archaeological projects (including surveys and excavations)”