Maritime cultural landscapes are collections of submerged archaeological sites, or combinations of terrestrial and submerged sites that reflect the relationship between humans and the water. These landscapes can range in size from a single beach to an entire coastline and can include areas of terrestrial sites now inundated as well as underwater sites that are now desiccated.
However, what binds all of these sites together is the premise that each aspect of the landscape cultural, political, environmental, technological, and physical is interrelated and can not be understood without reference to the others. In this maritime cultural landscape approach, individual sites are treated as features within the larger landscape and the interpretation of single sites add to a larger analysis of a region or culture. This approach provides physical and theoretical links between terrestrial and underwater archaeology as well as prehistoric and historic archaeology; consequently, providing a framework for integrating such diverse topics as trade, resource procurement, habitation, industrial production, and warfare into a holistic study of the past.
Landscape studies foster broader perspectives and approaches, extending the study of maritime cultures beyond the shoreline. Despite this potential, the archaeological study of maritime landscapes is a relatively untried approach with many questions regarding the methods and perspectives needed to effectively analyze these landscapes.
The chapters in this volume, which include contributions from the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Australia, address many of the theoretical and methodological questions surrounding maritime cultural landscapes. The authors comprise established scholars as well as archaeologists at the beginning of their careers, providing a healthy balance of experience and innovation. The chapters also demonstrate parity between method and theory, where the varying interpretations of culture and space are given equal weight with the challenges of investigating both wet and dry sites across large areas.
Preface: Putting the Wheels on Maritime Cultural Landscape Studies
David J. Stewart
Introduction
Ben Ford
Chapter 1
Searching for Santarosae: Surveying Submerged Landscapes for Evidence of Paleocoastal Habitation off Californias Northern Channel Islands
Jack Watts, Brian Fulfrost, and Jon Erlandson
Chapter 2
Testing the Paleo-Maritime Hypothesis for Glacial Lake Iroquois
Implications for Changing Views of Past Culture and Technology
Margaret Schulz, Susan Winchell-Sweeney, and Laurie Rush
Chapter 3
Lake Ontario Paleoshorelines and Submerged Prehistoric Site Potential in the Great Lakes
Jessi Halligan
Chapter 4
The Shoreline as a Bridge, Not a Boundary: Cognitive Maritime Landscapes of Lake Ontario
Ben Ford
Chapter 5
Rock, Paper, Shipwreck!
The Maritime Cultural Landscape of Thunder Bay
Wayne R. Lusardi
Chapter 6
Ship to Shore: Inuit, Early Europeans, and Maritime Landscapes in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence
William W. Fitzhugh, Anja Herzog, Sophia Perdikaris, and Brenna McLeod
Chapter 7
Temporal Changes in a Pre-Contact and Contact Period Cultural Landscape along the Southern Rhode Island Coast
Christopher Jazwa
Chapter 8
A Maritime Landscape of Old Navy Cove and Deadmans Island
Krista Dana Jordan-Greene
Chapter 9
Potential Contributions of a Maritime Cultural Landscape Approach to Submerged Prehistoric Resources, Northwestern Gulf of Mexico
Amanda M. Evans and Matthew E. Keith
Chapter 10
Modeling Maritime Culture; Galveston, Texas in the Historic Period
Matthew E. Keith and Amanda M. Evans
Chapter 11
The Hidden World of the Maritime Maya: Lost Landscapes along the North Coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico
Jeffrey B. Glover, Dominique Rissolo, and Jennifer P. Mathews
Chapter 12
Material Culture and Maritime Identity: Identifying Maritime Subcultures through Artifacts
Heather E. Hatch
Chapter 13
The Richest River in the World: The Maritime Cultural Landscape of the Mouth of the Río Chagres, Republica de Panamá
James P. Delgado, Frederick H. Hanselmann, and Dominique Rissolo
Chapter 14
US Shipbuilding Activities at American River, South Australia: Finding Significance of Place in the Maritime Cultural Landscape
Claire P. Dappert
Chapter 15
What Do You Want to Catch?: Exploring the Maritime Cultural Landscapes of the Queenscliff Fishing Community
Brad Duncan
Chapter 16
The Binary Relationship of Sea and Land
Christer Westerdahl
Chapter 17
Places of Special Meaning: Westerdahls Comet, Agency, and the Concept of the Maritime Cultural Landscape
Joe Flatman
Conclusion: The Maritime Cultural Landscape Revisited
Christer Westerdahl
