Michael Alexander Arbuthnot (born 9 June 1970) is an archaeologist, instructor and archaeological filmmaker.
Michael A. Arbuthnot [1] received his bachelor's degree in Philosophy and minor in Anthropology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1996. He holds a master's degree in Anthropology from Florida State University. He specialized in underwater archaeology and graduated magna cum laude.
Arbuthnot is an active member in many professional organizations, including: the Registry of Professional Archaeologists (RPA); the Florida Archaeological Council (FAC); the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (SEAC); the Florida Anthropological Society (FAS); the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS); and the St. Augustine Archaeological Association (SAAA).
In addition to being the author of many published articles and papers, Arbuthnot is considered an authority on submerged prehistoric sites. He focused his thesis on paleo-environmental change and the impact it has on archaeological sites in the Gulf of Mexico.
Arbuthnot's research has been presented at many conferences, including the Society for American Archaeology, the Northeast Florida Symposium on Underwater Archaeology, the annual meeting of the Florida Anthropological Society, and the Southeastern Archaeological Conference. The results of his research in the Caribbean are now exhibited at the George Town Museum on Grand Cayman Island.
Michael Arbuthnot is currently a faculty member at Flagler College, located in historic downtown St. Augustine, Florida. There, he teaches his students about the fascinating world of archaeology, which included a field expedition to the RMS Titanic. He hopes to set aside the boring impression people have of archaeology, saying, “People have this idea of archaeologists sitting there with a brush and a toothpick, but it can be exciting.” [2]
Arbuthnot's trip to the Titanic took him 12,600 feet below the ocean's surface. James Cameron, the producer, writer, and director of the movie “Titanic” recruited Arbuthnot in 2005 to work on the first systematic archeological survey of Titanic's internal bow structure. Findings from this survey were shown in the Discovery Channel special “Last Mysteries of the Titanic” and will exhibited as part of the Titanic Legacy Database Project presently in development with the non-profit digital historic preservation organization, CyArk.
Arbuthnot founded Team Atlantis Productions in 1996. The name, of course, is a play on the mythical underwater city of Atlantis. Arbuthnot defines Team Atlantis, saying, “TA is a multi-disciplinary outfit whose mission is to explore archeological mysteries with an emphasis on those enigmas associated with underwater contexts.” [3] Because underwater archeological sites usually have some connection with sites on land, Team Atlantis is not restricted to only underwater locations.
Team Atlantis has explored and surveyed many sites around the world, [4] including:
Team Atlantis Productions plan to open the eyes of the public to archaeological mysteries off the coast of San Diego through their show, “La Jolla’s Sunken City.” Michael Arbuthnot, the Writer/Producer of the show, paired with Director/Editor David Faires, to take underwater cinematography to new depths.
“Not only is Mike Arbuthnot the Writer/Producer, but he is rapidly becoming one of the most recognizable archaeologists in the United States. As a young professional archaeologist and former college professor, Arbuthnot has been featured on ABC, Discovery Channel and the Learning Channel. Most recently Arbuthnot conducted the first archaeological survey of the famous shipwreck R.M.S. Titanic with film maker and explorer James Cameron on Discovery Channel’s televised event, Last Mysteries of the Titanic. He continues to excite audiences and historians alike by blending ancient history and archaeology with filmmaking.” [5]
As stated previously, artifacts were first found in the early 1900s. Children would return to the shore from playing in the shallow water with small stone bowls. Scuba diving became increasingly popular in the 1950s, leading to more exploring around La Jolla. Due to this exploration, more than 2000 artifacts have been recovered. Some date to more than 5000 years ago. At least 34 submerged sites have been discovered in places as deep as 30 meters. Some scientists believe that La Jolla is an entire sunken village. In “La Jolla’s Sunken City,” Arbuthnot and Faires explore several hypotheses concerning how these objects were originally deposited, and they reveal never before seen artifacts.
Arbuthnot had trouble at the beginning of the expedition, but was eventually successful in finding artifacts at La Jolla. According to the CineForm article on La Jolla: Their success was aided by the help of a small octopus. A diver was tracking it, when the octopus stopped behind a round stone. This ‘stone’ turned out to be a beautiful stone bowl, which eventually led the team to discovering a total of six artifacts in 20 feet of water. Arbuthnot speculates that these ancient finds date to between 4,000 and 7,000 years ago! [5]
Arbuthnot has worked on underwater archaeology projects in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and the Caribbean since 1997. He has surveyed, mapped, excavated, interpreted and analyzed artifacts, and published reports on a variety of diverse archaeological sites. He continues his work, based mainly in Florida. He also functions as Newsletter Editor for the Florida Archaeological Council.
Arbuthnot presently serves as a Senior Project Manager for SEARCH, a leading cultural resource company based in Florida. [6]
Arbuthnot is working with the Discovery Channel to create the television show "America's Lost Vikings", about the location of the mythical Viking Vinland, and where they may have settled along Canada and the United States. [7]
Arbuthnot's documentary Secret Worlds with Mike Arbuthnot began airing on the travel channel in 2010. [8]
Born in Oakland, California, son of Robert Murray Arbuthnot, Michael is married to Serena Lynn Conrad who had two sons by her first marriage. They live in St Augustine, Florida. [9]
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.
Underwater archaeology is archaeology practiced underwater. As with all other branches of archaeology, it evolved from its roots in pre-history and in the classical era to include sites from the historical and industrial eras. Its acceptance has been a relatively late development due to the difficulties of accessing and working underwater sites, and because the application of archaeology to underwater sites initially emerged from the skills and tools developed by shipwreck salvagers. As a result, underwater archaeology initially struggled to establish itself as actual archaeological research. This changed when universities began teaching the subject and a theoretical and practical base for the sub-discipline was firmly established in the late 1980’s. Underwater archaeology now has a number of branches including, maritime archaeology: the scientifically based study of past human life, behaviours and cultures and their activities in, on, around and (lately) under the sea, estuaries and rivers. This is most often effected using the physical remains found in, around or under salt or fresh water or buried beneath water-logged sediment. In recent years, the study of submerged WWII sites and of submerged aircraft in the form of underwater aviation archaeology have also emerged as bona fide activity.
The year 2000 in archaeology included many events, some of which are listed below.
The Abū Qīr Bay is a spacious bay on the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria in Egypt, lying between the Rosetta mouth of the Nile and the town of Abu Qir. The ancient cities of Canopus, Heracleion and Menouthis lie submerged beneath the waters of the bay. In 1798 it was the site of the Battle of the Nile, a naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the navy of the French First Republic. The bay contains a natural gas field, discovered in the 1970s.
The Yonaguni Monument, also known as "Yonaguni (Island) Submarine Ruins", is a submerged rock formation off the coast of Yonaguni, the southernmost of the Ryukyu Islands, in Japan. It lies approximately a hundred kilometres east of Taiwan.
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.
Franck Goddio is a French underwater archaeologist who, in 2000, discovered the city of Thonis-Heracleion 7 km off the Egyptian shore in Aboukir Bay. He led the excavation of the submerged site of Eastern Canopus and of Antirhodos in the ancient harbour of Alexandria. He has also excavated ships in the waters of the Philippines, significantly the Spanish galleon San Diego.
The archaeological La Jolla complex represents a prehistoric culture oriented toward coastal resources that prevailed during the middle Holocene period between c. 8000 BC and AD 500 in southwestern California and northwestern Baja California.
The Archaeology Discover Centre was a museum located in Fort Victoria on the Isle of Wight, England.
The Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage is a treaty that was adopted on 2 November 2001 by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The convention is intended to protect "all traces of human existence having a cultural, historical or archaeological character" which have been under water for over 100 years. This extends to the protection of shipwrecks, sunken cities, prehistoric art work, treasures that may be looted, sacrificial and burial sites, and old ports that cover the oceans' floors. The preservation of underwater cultural heritage is significant as it allows for the retelling of numerous historical events. As part of its duty to conduct scientific research and provide continuous education on the importance of underwater cultural heritage, UNESCO strives to maintain these sites for the enjoyment of current and future generations. The convention may provide a customary framework to help raise awareness and seek to combat the illegal looting and pirating occurring in waters worldwide. As an international body, member states of the convention agree to work towards the preservation of sunken cultural property within their jurisdiction and the high seas.
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.
Heracleion, also known by its Egyptian name Thonis and sometimes called Thonis-Heracleion, was an ancient Egyptian port city located near the Canopic Mouth of the Nile, about 32 km (20 mi) northeast of Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea. It became inundated and its remains are located in Abu Qir Bay, currently 2.5 km (1.6 mi) off the coast, under 30 ft (9.1 m) of water, and near Abukir. The sanctuary of Neith of Sais was located in Thonis. A stele found on the site indicates that late in its history the city was known by both its Egyptian and Greek names.
J&J Hunt Site (8JE740) is an inundated prehistoric archaeological site located 6 km off the coast of northwestern Florida. The site which was discovered in 1989 is located in 3.7 to 4.6 m of salt water in the Gulf of Mexico along the PaleoAucilla River. In prehistory the site had at least two different occupations: a Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic and Middle Archaic. The J&J Hunt site was a major focus of the PaleoAucilla Prehistory Project conducted by Michael K. Faught.
The city of Pavlopetri, underwater off the coast of southern Laconia in Peloponnese, Greece, is about 5,000 years old, making it one of the oldest submerged lost cities, as well as the oldest in the Mediterranean sea. Pavlopetri is unique in having an almost complete town plan, including streets, buildings, and tombs.
Charles T. Meide Jr., known as Chuck Meide, is an underwater and maritime archaeologist and currently the Director of LAMP, the research arm of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum located in St. Augustine, Florida. Meide, of Syrian descent on his father's side, was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised in the nearby coastal town of Atlantic Beach. He earned BA and MA degrees in Anthropology with a focus in underwater archaeology in 1993 and 2001 from Florida State University, where he studied under George R. Fischer, and undertook Ph.D. studies in Historical Archaeology at the College of William and Mary starting the following year. Meide has participated in a wide array of shipwreck and maritime archaeological projects across the U.S., especially in Florida, and throughout the Caribbean and Bermuda and in Australia and Ireland. From 1995 to 1997 he participated in the search for, discovery, and total excavation of La Salle's shipwreck, La Belle , lost in 1686. From December 1997 to January 1998 he served as Co-Director of the Kingstown Harbour Shipwreck Project, an investigation sponsored by the Institute of Maritime History and Florida State University into the wreck of the French frigate Junon (1778) lost in 1780 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In 1999 he directed the Dog Island Shipwreck Survey, a comprehensive maritime survey of the waters around a barrier island off the coast of Franklin County, Florida, and between 2004 and 2006 he directed the Achill Island Maritime Archaeology Project off the coast of County Mayo, Ireland. Since taking over as Director of LAMP in 2006, he has directed the First Coast Maritime Archaeology Project, a state-funded research and educational program focusing on shipwrecks and other maritime archaeological resources in the offshore and inland waters of Northeast Florida. In 2009, during this project, Meide discovered the "Storm Wreck," a ship from the final fleet to evacuate British troops and Loyalist refugees from Charleston at the end of the Revolutionary War, which wrecked trying to enter St. Augustine in late December 1782. He led the archaeological excavation of this shipwreck site each summer from 2010 through 2015, overseeing the recovery of thousands of well-preserved artifacts.
David Moore is an American archaeologist and historian. He is best known for his work on the Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project. The Queen Anne's Revenge was the flagship of the infamous pirate Blackbeard. He used her for less than a year, but she was an effective tool in his prize-taking.
The Cuban underwater formation is a site thought by some to be a submerged granite structural complex off the coast of the Guanahacabibes Peninsula in the Pinar del Río Province of Cuba.
The conservation and restoration of shipwreck artifacts is the process of caring for cultural heritage that has been part of a shipwreck. Oftentimes these cultural artifacts have been underwater for a great length of time. Without conservation, most artifacts would perish and important historical data would be lost. In archaeological terms, it is usually the responsibility of an archaeologist and conservator to ensure that material recovered from a shipwreck is properly cared for. The conservation phase is often time-consuming and expensive, which is one of the most important considerations when planning and implementing any action involving the recovery of artifacts from a shipwreck.
María del Pilar Luna Erreguerena was a Mexican underwater archaeologist, pioneer in the field of archaeology, who founded the Division of Underwater Archaeology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). She was awarded her undergraduate degree by the National School of Anthropology and History and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), from which she then obtained her master's degree in Anthropological Sciences.
This page lists major events of 2019 in archaeology.
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