 |
The Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) is an organization devoted to the study of humanity's interaction with the sea through the practice of archaeology.
| |
The Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) is an organization devoted to the study of humanity's interaction with the sea through the practice of archaeology.
INA's founder Dr. George Bass pioneered the science of underwater excavation in the 1960s through work at Cape Gelidonya and other ancient shipwreck sites off the coast of Turkey. Since then, INA has expanded its scope and activities to work globally on shipwrecks and submerged sites. In 1976, the affiliation of INA with Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas gave rise to the graduate Nautical Archaeology Program there. Hundreds of archaeologists have received their training at Texas A&M and today, after more than four decades of the Nautical Archaeology Program's existence.
INA is a not-for-profit group founded in 1972 and recognized by the U.S. Government in 1973. Today it has members all over the world and counts among them professional archaeologists, students, and many others from all walks of life.
INA's mission is to bring history to light through the science of shipwrecks. INA's members apply standards of science and art to locating, excavating, recording, preserving, and publishing shipwrecks and other archaeological sites of maritime significance all over the world. They do so to add to humanity's understanding of seafaring's role in the development of civilization. Three-quarters of the earth is covered by water, and in the fabric of human history, the most pervasive thread is our association with the planet's oceans, rivers and lakes.
The Institute of Nautical Archaeology works for the public to share what nautical archaeologists do, with anyone with an interest. INA is also committed to the preservation of the world's shipwrecks and other archaeological sites, but specifically to finding the most significant sites and excavating them to unlock their secrets.
INA's professional and volunteer members and affiliates have conducted fieldwork in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas, and Europe. They have worked on the world's oldest known shipwrecks, and on wrecks as recent as World War II. Their work has improved the understanding of ancient trade in the Mediterranean, the development of the ship, shipbuilding in the Ancient World, the saga of European expansion into the New World, and wars for the control of the Americas.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Maritime archaeology is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of associated physical remains, be they vessels, shore-side facilities, port-related structures, cargoes, human remains and submerged landscapes. A specialty within maritime archaeology is nautical archaeology, which studies ship construction and use.
Cape Gelidonya, formerly Kilidonia or Killidonia is a cape or headland on the Teke Peninsula in the chain of Taurus Mountains, located on the southern coast of Anatolia between the Gulf of Antalya and the Bay of Finike.
The Uluburun Shipwreck is a Late Bronze Age shipwreck dated to the late 14th century BC, discovered close to the east shore of Uluburun, Turkey, in the Mediterranean Sea. The shipwreck was discovered in the summer of 1982 by Mehmed Çakir, a local sponge diver from Yalıkavak, a village near Bodrum.
Bodrum Castle is a historical fortification located in southwest Turkey in the port city of Bodrum, built from 1402 onwards, by the Knights of St John as the Castle of St. Peter or Petronium. A transnational effort, it has four towers known as the English, French, German, and Italian towers, bearing the names of the nations responsible for their construction. The chapel was built around 1407 and the first walls completed in 1437. The castle started reconstruction in the late 14th century, only to be taken over by the Islamic Ottoman Empire in 1523. The chapel was converted to a mosque, and a minaret was added. The castle remained under the empire for almost 400 years. After remaining empty following World War I, in the early 1960s, the castle became the home for the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. In 2016 it was inscribed in the UNESCO Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turkey.
Asherah was the first commercially built American research submersible, owned by the University of Pennsylvania and used by archaeologist George F. Bass to examine underwater sites. It was named after Asherah, an ancient Semitic goddess known as "she who treads on the sea".
David Gibbins is an underwater archaeologist and a bestselling novelist.
The archaeology of shipwrecks is the field of archaeology specialized most commonly in the study and exploration of shipwrecks. Its techniques combine those of archaeology with those of diving to become Underwater archaeology. However, shipwrecks are discovered on what have become terrestrial sites.
James Preston Delgado is a maritime archaeologist, historian, maritime preservation expert, author, television host, and explorer.
Edgerton Alvord Throckmorton, known as Peter Throckmorton, was an American photojournalist and a pioneer underwater archaeologist.
George Fletcher Bass was an American archaeologist. An early practitioner of underwater archaeology, he co-directed the first expedition to entirely excavate an ancient shipwreck at Cape Gelidonya in 1960 and founded the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in 1972.
Joan Mabel Frederica du Plat Taylor FSA was a British archaeologist and pioneer of underwater nautical archaeology.
George Robert Fischer was an American underwater archaeologist, considered the founding father of the field in the National Park Service. A native Californian, he did undergraduate and graduate work at Stanford University, and began his career with the National Park Service in 1959, which included assignments in six parks, the Washington, D.C. Office, and the Southeast Archaeological Center from which he retired in 1988. He began teaching courses in underwater archaeology at Florida State University in 1974 and co-instructed inter-disciplinary courses in scientific diving techniques. After retirement from the NPS his FSU activities were expanded and his assistance helped shape the university's program in underwater archaeology.
RPM Nautical Foundation is a non-profit archaeological research and educational organization dedicated to the advancement of maritime archaeology that includes littoral surveys and excavation of individual shipwreck and harbor sites.
The Nautical Archaeology Program (NAP) is a degree-granting program within the Anthropology Department at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
Site Recorder is a geographical information system (GIS) and information management system (IMS) designed for use in maritime, freshwater and intertidal archaeology. Site Recorder can be used on maritime and intertidal archaeology projects for real-time data collection, decision support, publication, archiving and data migration. The program is designed for use by archaeologists rather than GIS experts.
The Ayla-Axum amphorae are conical, carrot-shaped amphorae found around the Red Sea, particularly in the Late Roman/Byzantine period. Originally named after the widest range of finds in the Red Sea, subsequent findings since the mid-1990s indicate that the amphoras originate in Byzantine, or even early Islamic, Aqaba. Hence, the preferred nomenclature is now "Aqaba Amphora." The Aqaba amphora type has been found in many terrestrial sites throughout the region and beyond, such as in Eritrea and Ethiopia: Aksum, where amphora sherds with fabrics light red on the inside, pale gray on the outside, as well as greenish-gray fabric were found by the Deutsche Aksum Expedition ; Matara dating to the 4th through 7th centuries ; and Adulis examples of which are on display in the National Museum in Asmara. Other examples have been found at Berenike in Egypt, where the amphorae date to a circa AD 400 context in what may be the best-stratified examples ; from Aqaba in Jordan where many examples have been found, including their kilns; on The Shipwreck at Black Assarca Island, Eritrea ; and in the Mediterranean on the late 6th-century shipwreck at Iskandil Burnu, Turkey that is the sole example yet found in that sea. A number of the amphoras and sherds came to light during excavations at Zafar in Yemen, and eleven of the sherds were subjected to mineralogical analysis, which demonstrated that the amphoras originate in what is now Aqaba, Jordan.
Honor Frost was a pioneer in the field of underwater archaeology, who led many Mediterranean archaeological investigations, especially in Lebanon, and was noted for her typology of stone anchors and skills in archaeological illustration.
The Molasses Reef Shipwreck is the site of a ship which wrecked in the Turks and Caicos Islands early in the 16th century. It is the oldest wreck of a European ship in the Americas to have been scientifically excavated.
Yassi Ada is an island off the coast of Bodrum, Turkey. This area of the Mediterranean Sea is prone to strong winds, making a safe journey around the island difficult. The island could be called a ships' graveyard, on account of the number of wrecked ships off its southeastern tip. Three wreck sites have been excavated under the direction of George Bass of Texas A&M University. The first to be studied using archaeological techniques was a 4th-century Byzantine wreck, the second a 7th-century Byzantine wreck, and the third a 16th-century Ottoman wreck. Bass received funding for a summer excavation at the site from the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania and the National Geographic Society.
Ralph K. Pedersen is a nautical archaeologist from Levittown New York, United States. He was the DAAD Gastdozent für Nautische Archäologie at Philipps-Universität Marburg 2010–2013, and has been distinguished visiting professor in anthropology and Knapp Chair in Liberal Arts at the University of San Diego, and the Whittlesey Chair Visiting Assistant Professor in the department of history and archaeology at the American University of Beirut. He has been teaching online courses in archaeology in the History Department at Southwestern Assemblies of God University since 2009.
