Abstract
Finding the hull of the Atocha took 16 years. Recovering the cultural wealth of the site could take even longer. The wrecks of the 1715 treasure fleet, first located in the 1960s, are still yielding valuable archaeological information and quite a bit of treasure. While Kane’s dramatic discovery of the main pile ended Mel Fisher’s quest, for the archaeological team this is only the first phase of a long, arduous process. I can’t predict how long it will take to raise, clean, catalog, preserve, and then study and report on the 300,000 or so artifacts we eventually expect to recover from the Atocha and Margarita. Mel has won his battle with history, but for me, the archaeology of the project is still very much on trial.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Selected Bibliography
Lyon, E., n.d., 1622 Fleet Loss Narrative. Ms..
Lyon, E., n.d., List of Gear and Equipment and Some Construction Details of Nuestra Senora de Atocha 1622. Ms.
Lyon, E., 1975, Data on the Identification of Shipwreck Site 8M0141 in the Marquesas Keys, Florida. Ms.
Lyon, E., 1976, The Identification of a 17th-Century Spanish Galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Paper presented at the St. Augustine Historical Society.
Lyon, E., 1977, Spanish Cultures in Colonial Florida and Their Connection with Historic Shipwrecks. Paper presented at the Conference on Florida Historic Shipwreck Archaeology.
Lyon, E., 1980, A Historian’s Thoughts on Some Shipwreck Models. Paper presented at the conference on Maritime Cultural Heritage of the Florida Keys: How Can It Be Preserved? Florida Endowment for the Humanities, Key West.
Lyon, E., and Mathewson, R.D., III, 1975, The Historical and Archaeological Meaning of the 1622 Shipwrecks Off the Marquesas Keys, Florida. Paper presented at the Florida Historical Society Conference, Gainesville.
Lyon, E., and Mathewson, R.D., III, 1975, An Introduction to the Ethnohistory of the Lower Florida Keys. Paper presented at the American Society for Ethnohistory Conference, Gainesville, Florida.
Lyon, E., and Purdy, B., 1982, Contraband in Spanish Colonial Ships. Itinerario: Journal of the Institute of European Expansion. University of Leiden.
Mathewson, R.D., III, 1975, Historical Shipwreck Archaeology: New Developments from the Lower Florida Keys. The Conference on Historic Site Archaeology Papers, 1973, 8:121–128.
Mathewson, R.D., III, 1975, A New Methodological Approach to Shipwreck Archaeology. Paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology and International Conference on Underwater Archaeology, Charleston, South Carolina.
Mathewson, R.D., III. 1975, Historical Shipwreck Ceramics: A Preliminary Analysis of Olive Jar Data from the Wreck Site of Nuestra Senora de Atocha (ms.), Department of Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton.
Mathewson, R.D., III, 1975, Archaeological Recovery: Its Potential and Limitations on New World Shallow Water Sites (ms.).
Mathewson, R.D., III, 1976, Introductory Notes on Operationalizing a Procedural Model for the Conservation of Archaeological Data from the Wreck Site of Nuestra Senora de Atocha (ms.).
Mathewson, R.D., III, 1976, An Introduction to the Numismatic Assemblage from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha (ms.).
Mathewson, R.D., III, 1977, Archaeological Research on the Wreck Site of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha: A General Overview of the Mapping and Survey Procedures. Paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology and International Conference on Underwater Archaeology, Ottawa, Canada.
Mathewson, R.D., III, 1977, An Introduction to the Use of Aerial Photographic Imagery for Locating and Interpreting Shallow Water Shipwreck Sites Off the Florida Coast (ms.). Department of Geography, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton.
Mathewson, R.D., III, and Clyne, P., 1977, Digging Procedures Utilized in the Search for the Lower Hull Section of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology and International Conference on Underwater Archaeology, Ottawa, Canada.
Mathewson, R.D., III, Dorwing, J.T., Sinclair, J.J., and Marken, M.W., 1986, Atocha Archaeology: A Look at the Anatomy of a Spanish Treasure Galleon. Paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology and Conferences on Underwater Archaeology: Sacramento, California.
Mathewson, R.D., III, and Lyon, E., 1976, The Guns of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha (ms.).
Mathewson, R.D., III, Lyon, E., and McAlister, R.F., 1976, Atocha Data Evaluation Report (ms.).
Mathewson, R.D., III, Murphy, L., and Spencer, B., 1975, New Concepts in Marine Archaeology: Shallow Water Historic Archaeology in the Lower Florida keys. Conference on Historic Site Archaeology Papers, 9:141–151.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mathewson, R.D. (1998). Archaeology on Trial. In: Babits, L.E., Van Tilburg, H. (eds) Maritime Archaeology. The Springer Series in Underwater Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0084-5_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0084-5_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-306-45331-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0084-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive