A Discussion of Maritime Archaeology

Abstract

The advent of practical scuba technology in the 1940s profoundly impacted archaeology. Free diving techniques opened up a vast range of sites to excavation with a degree of precision that had previously been impossible. At the same time the possibilities of this new technology posed fundamental questions — methodological, ethical, and philosophical — for archaeology, academia, the private and public administration of the arts, and, ultimately, for public opinion to answer. These problems were presented in their starkest forms during the first 20 years after the availability of scuba technology, the community at large sidestepped the challenge, and, as a consequence, even today few of these issues have generated entirely satisfactory solutions.