Research into the anthropogenic and taphonomic processes that affect the formation of maritime archaeological resources has grown significantly over the last decade in both theory and the analysis of specific sites and associated material culture. The addition of interdisciplinary inquiry, investigative techniques, and analytical modeling, from fields such as engineering, oceanography, and marine biology have increased our ability to trace the unique pathways through which archaeological sites progress from initial deposition to the present, yet can also link individual sites into an integrated socio-environmental maritime landscape.
The formation of the maritime archaeological landscape however must be analyzed as an integrative whole rather than merely a sum of its constituent parts. It has to be understood as a both physical and cognitive social, spatial, and temporal construct of what is physically present and what those who live within and those who study it perceive. This holistic approach informs a more robust empirical understanding of the evolution of human behavior and its relationship with the natural world.
This edited volume presents a global perspective of current research in maritime archaeological landscape formation processes. In addition to “classically” considered submerged material cultural and geography, or those that can be accessed by traditional underwater methodology, case studies include less-often considered sites and landscapes that require archaeologists to, for example, use geophysical marine survey equipment to characterize extensive areas of the seafloor or go above the surface to access maritime archaeological resources that have received less scholarly attention.
