During last week’s Tweetchat @agi_mv asked about the use of satellite technology in identifying submerged sites and shipwrecks. The discussion that followed ended up on the beaches of south India about 10 years ago, beaches which Julian had identified kattumaram boats on from GoogleEarth images and on which Lucy, Julian and I (along with Dr Colin Palmer, Dr Selvakumar and a handful of other fantastically patient Indian colleagues) spent some weeks recording and researching fishing boats.

@JesseRansley @rjulianw Of course. Where would romantic/adventurous cliches of maritime archaeology otherwise come from? Photo evidence? ;)

— Ági MV (@agi_mv) February 4, 2016

@agi_mv’s comment about the images that project conjured up and some of the romantic clichés of maritime archaeology got me thinking.[1]

We could probably all name a few of the clichés and visual tropes that surround maritime archaeology: the dives on intact shipwrecks in crystal blue seas; divers surfacing, breaking the waves with crucial artefacts in their hands; the technology pinging and effortlessly producing perfect surveys of exactly what is on and in the seabed.[2] Most of the time, however, it is largely about mud, mud and soggy wood if you are lucky, but definitely mud and laptops on desks in messy offices.

In maritime ethnography and ethnoarchaeology, which we’ll be discussing further in Week Four, the photographs we take are documentary. They form a core part of the project archive. They are also often a source of a different set of ‘romantic cliches’ and visual tropes: sandy beaches, rough-hewn boats, palm trees, local fishermen and boatmen, big skies… a timeless idyll or holiday paradise in which any researcher would want to work.

In the last few years, archaeologists have been increasingly interested in their project archives as an object of study in themselves. They’re no longer looked at simply as ‘neutral’ records of a project or site. We’re starting to recognise the people behind the archives – the choices that are made of what to record, what to include, what to disregard – and how those choices shape the apparently ‘neutral’ record. We’re looking for traces of the historical and social context in which they were made.[3]

Some of which might sound like a lot of navel-gazing – but it is very important to maritime ethnoarchaeology in particular. There is a lot to be found behind questions like: who is doing the recording? Who gets to choose what is important and should be photographed? How are these images used? And, who is viewing and commenting on them? And perhaps most importantly, are fishermen being recorded as ‘objects’ alongside their boats?

The assumptions we make as viewers of photographs are of particular importance. What do we see beyond boats on a beach? Do our ideas about ‘traditional fishermen’, Indian lives and culture shape what we see? What historical, social and cultural ideas do we unconsciously draw on to understand the image? Do the fishermen (or the researcher) have any say in how they are represented?

In postcolonial contexts, the power dynamics at play in idyllic images like the one above are striking. Ideas about the tensions between ‘modern’ and ‘ancient’, between urban and rural, about race, postcolonial dynamics and even economic and intellectual power, are swirling around these photos and in the ways in which we use and look at them.

This is a problem that ethnographers and maritime ethnoarchaeologists still grapple with. How can the people (researcher and fisherman alike) within the photographs be more than stereotypes? How can we make sure the people we study are able to represent themselves within our work? How can projects be collaborations, shaped by both the community and researcher?

These are complicated methodological and philosophical problems for researchers, particularly if they are interested in intangible heritage, like boat building and maritime traditions.

There’s an awful lot at stake within some of those ‘romantic’ images of maritime ethnoarchaeology.

So, in readiness for tonight’s Tweetchat (between 8-9pm tonight, #FLShipwrecks), I have a few questions for you:

• What do you think are the biggest clichés of maritime archaeology?
• Have you ever thought of any of them as destructive or dangerous?
• And, what image or photograph best sum-up maritime archaeology for you?

[1] In fact, there is a photo essay and research paper being formulated as we speak as a result – thank you @agi_mv.

[2] I’ve written about some of this from a different angle here.

[3] There was a very good ‘Archives Issue’ of the Archaeological Review from Cambridge in 2014. The introduction to the volume can be found here.

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The sea and the world’s coastlines have always been a great lure for me which is why being a maritime archaeologist and exploring how humans have and continue to interact with this fascinating environment is possibly the perfect job.

My roots are in Near Eastern archaeology and harbours and maritime networks of the eastern Mediterranean particularly during the Late Bronze Age. More recently I have explored harbours and connectivity in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf spanning the Roman through to the late Historic period. I have conducted and directed numerous coastal surveys and ancient harbour projects in the region including in parts of Alexandria and along the Red Sea coast of Egypt, Eritrea and Oman. I have published over fifty publications that report on the results of this work.

I am also a self-confessed ‘boat nerd’ particularly fascinated in small traditional working boats that operated around the world’s coasts both past and present. For more than ten years I have recorded boats in the western Indian Ocean region, noting their form and construction and how this changed over time. I am also interested in the role they play within the maritime societies that build and use them.

I like to work in collaboration with colleagues in the countries that I conduct research. After a long history of collaboration with the University of Alexandria, Egypt, in 2009, having secured a European Union TEMPUS grant, I helped establish the first Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Underwater Cultural Heritage (CMAUCH) in the Arab world within the University of Alexandria. Subsequently, further collaborative initiatives have been undertaken in my role as director of the Maritime Archaeology Stewardship Trust. MAST aims to build capacity for maritime archaeology and coastal heritage management relating to training, education and resource enhancement in the Arab region, with activities to date in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Qatar and Oman.

I am also a HSE qualified commercial diver and have been involved in a number of shipwreck survey and excavation projects. Recently I directed a three-year collaborative research project in Montenegro, the Montenegro Maritime Archaeological Research Project. It was funded by the Headley Trust, supported by the Montenegro Ministry of Culture and co-directed by the Bar Museum. This three- year collaborative project aimed to train students of archaeology in Montenegro and provide opportunities for Southampton Masters students to participate in underwater survey and excavation. This project was completed in 2013 and is currently being written up for publication as a co-edited monograph.

Besides active research projects, teaching and academic publications, I have a very keen interest in communicating the subject of maritime archaeology to a wider audience. In 2007-2008 I was one of four expert presenters on the BBC/Discovery co-funded eight-part documentary series ‘Oceans’. Subsequently I have undertaken further presenting work for Channel 4 and National Geographic and am currently working on a one-hour documentary on Egypt’s Sunken City for BBC2. I am a lifelong supporter and current Vice President of the international Nautical Archaeology Society, a founder member of the UNESCO UniTwin Maritime Archaeological Network, and have recently been appointed Special Adviser for the Honor Frost Foundation.

During this course I will expand on some of the themes highlighted above – ancient seafaring, trade and harbours and of course further explore the threats currently faced by the world’s maritime and underwater cultural heritage.

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