Browsing by Author "Campbell, Peter B."

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    6 Shipwreck archaeology in the past 10 years
    (Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2023-12-08) Briggs, Lisa; Campbell, Peter B.
    This paper reviews the trends, topics, and research directions in shipwreck archaeology over the past decade. As archaeology increasingly embraces advances in technological methods that can aid our research, the so-called ‘digital turn’, it behoves maritime archaeologists, and archaeologists more broadly, to consider how collaborative utilization of specialized fields including biomolecular archaeology, geophysics, and contemporary philosophy have spurred on a rapid modernization of our field in recent times. Archaeological research, both terrestrial and underwater, has long been a collaborative discipline. However, we argue here that difficulties in working underwater have encouraged maritime and underwater archaeologists to embrace technological developments at a rapid pace. An explicit theoretical framework and the incorporation of contemporary philosophy in the field of underwater archaeology was, until recently, largely lacking in the discipline’s discourse. The incorporation and advancement of adjacent disciplines within the field of underwater archaeology mark the most relevant changes within the shifting tides of shipwreck research.
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    The Anthropocene, hyperobjects and the archaeology of the future past
    (Cambridge University Press, 2021-08-19) Campbell, Peter B.
    Archaeology is often defined as the study of the past through material culture. As we enter the Anthropocene, however, the two parts of this definition increasingly diverge. In the Anthropocene the archaeological record ceases to be observed from a distance, but is something we exist within. It is not an assemblage of material culture, but a hyperobject of vast temporal and geographical scope, in which ecofacts increase in prominence and the role of artefacts recedes. This article examines the archaeological record as a hyperobject and argues for an expanded definition of archaeology for the future past. It argues for a shift from the study of objects towards a broader archaeology that includes immaterial Anthropocene culture.
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    Chapter 10: Octopodology and Dark Amphorae: alien archaeologies, reflexivity, and the non-human afterlives of objects in the sea
    (Sidestone Press Academics, 2023-03-14) Campbell, Peter B.
    When Christopher Columbus presented his argument for the existence of lands across the Atlantic Ocean, the “eminent men of Genoa” apocryphally replied that to the west were only “the mist of darkness” (Abulafia, 2019, p. 610). This self-limiting conception of the world resulted in Genoa missing the European “discovery” of the western continents to the benefit of Spain. Anthropology and archaeology have their own ‘mists of darkness’, self-imposed limits or blindness due to culture, gender, or social status. There are aspects that observers cannot perceived due to their proximity to the subject. Anthropology sought to address this through the “reflexive turn”, where researchers seek to identify and understand their own inherent biases (Hymes, 1999).
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    Chapter 1: Collapse, cataclysm, and eruption: Alien archaeologies for the Anthropocene
    (Sidestone Press Academics, 2023-03-14) Rich, Sara A.; Campbell, Peter B.
    Our shared planet is becoming increasingly alien in the Anthropocene, and increasingly inundated. These radical changes to our home call for critical considerations of collapse – when destruction comes from above and rains downward – and cataclysm – as in flood or deluge, when destruction surges up from below – alongside eruption – or hyperbolic destruction spewing forth from a container as small as a split atom. The authors propose that a theoretical framework of object orientation offers a way for archaeologists, especially those whose work brings them into the sea, to contribute more meaningfully to contemporary research about our planet’s pastpresent- future. We have two primary aims: 1) to help usher the alienated subdiscipline of maritime archaeology into the broader discourse of the humanities; and 2) to issue a call to action for fellow maritime archaeologists to respond to ecocide more urgently, more crossdisciplinarily, and more responsibly with new interventions into old research questions. After defending the unique relevance of object orientation to the humanities and social sciences – archaeology specifically and maritime or nautical archaeology most of all – it will pose some relevant questions on how to use our research expertise to move forward, while establishing effective methodologies for thinking and communicating the nonhuman to students and the general public. Ultimately, this paper advocates for mobilizing a radical shift in how humans think and care for all the objects sharing our lives, and our destinies, which are increasingly impacted from above, below, and within.
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    Chapter 1: the archaeology of rivers: processes and patterns
    (Taylor & Francis, 2023-11-30) Campbell, Peter B.
    The archaeology of rivers to date could be categorized as archaeology in rivers, rather than an archaeology of rivers. Rivers are dynamic entities which form complex entanglements with cultures. However, rivers follow natural processes, and their geomorphology has an elegant underlying structure. These processes lead to cultural patterns that are entangled with the river’s agency, though humans are likewise agents. This chapter examines these processes (e.g. upland/lowland rivers, thalweg, riffle and pool sequences) and the patterns (e.g. settlements, navigation, bridge design) that relate to them. It advocates for an archaeology of rivers which makes use of both terrestrial and submerged information to understand the broader context of riverine cultures.
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    Conclusion: If on a winter’s night a ship wrecks
    (Sidestone Press Academics, 2023-03-14) Campbell, Peter B.
    Contemporary Philosophy for Maritime Archaeology has sought to address two aims, as outlined in the introduction. First, “to help usher the alienated subdiscipline of maritime archaeology into the broader discourse of the humanities” and, second, “to issue a call to action for fellow maritime archaeologists to respond to ecocide more urgently, more crossdisciplinarily, and more responsibly with new interventions into old research questions” (Rich and Campbell, this volume). The extent to which these aims are successful – measured by engagement of the field with the ideas proposed in this volume – remains to be seen, but this concluding chapter reviews the contributions and responses to tease out the recurrent themes within the chapters that further these lofty aims.
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    Prelude: A History of maritime archaeological thought
    (Sidestone Press Academics, 2023-03-14) Campbell, Peter B.
    Before considering contemporary philosophy and maritime archaeology, it is worth reviewing the history of maritime archaeological thought. R. G. Collingwood, notable as the only professor of philosophy who was also a practicing archaeologist, argued “no historical problem should be studied without studying… the history of historical thought about it” (Collingwood, 1939, p. 132), which is the approach of Bruce Trigger’s A History of Archaeological Thought (2006, pp. 1–2). Trigger’s monumental study of archaeology’s intellectual trajectory provides a framework for understanding the broader field; however, it rarely touches on thought relating to archaeology under water, largely due to maritime archaeology being “theory agnostic” according to Matthew Harpster. Indeed, the relationship between maritime archaeology and theory, especially engagement with new philosophies, has been fraught. While archaeology and the related field of anthropology have significant cohorts of scholars who experiment and appraise new philosophical and theoretical approaches, contemporary maritime archaeology has been slow to do so. However, this has not always the case if we look at the pursuit of knowledge through underwater excavation, which has a history of over 250 projects from 1006 until the advent of modern maritime archaeology following the excavation of the Bronze Age shipwreck at Cape Gelidonya in 1960 (Campbell and Flemming, 2022). This chapter provides a short, non-comprehensive history of maritime archaeological thought which might – as Collingwood advocates – provide useful context for the rest of the volume.