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Site Formation Processes of Submerged Shipwrecks. MATTHEW E. KEITH (editor), 2016. University Press of Florida, Gainesville. xi + 276 pp. $79.95 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-8130-6162-7.
Site Formation Processes of Submerged Shipwrecks explores the physical and cultural processes affecting shipwreck sites. Authors from archaeology, chemistry, oceanography, and sediment dynamics share their expertise regarding the factors that influence the formation and preservation of shipwreck sites. These include the material aspects of ships, the underwater environment, and events including storms, chemical reactions, and subsequent human activity.
In the introduction, the volume's editor, Matthew Keith, and Ian Oxley note that underwater archaeologists have recognized the importance of understanding the processes affecting site formation since the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, when terrestrial archaeologists were embracing Michael Schiffer's (Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record, 1987) observations on how cultural and natural transformations affect land sites, Keith Muckelroy (Maritime Archaeology, 1978) was developing models for the evolution of a shipwreck site. He recognized two mechanisms—scrambling processes and extracting filters—that would explain site condition. These, of course, have been refined over the past 40 years. This book is divided into “Natural Processes,” “Cultural Processes,”...