Maritime Archaeology
Field School

Who should attend?

• Postgraduate and upper division (3^rd/Honours year) students undertaking a degree in archaeology who want specific training in coastal and marine
• Scientific Divers who want specific training in underwater archaeology
• Professional archaeologists who want training in maritime archaeology
• Marine science students who would like to be exposed to underwater archaeology
• Avocational archaeologists who want formal training

This course will be of interest to students of archaeology, anthropology, history, geography, conservation, environmental management, and heritage, as well as vocational archaeologists and archaeology professionals.

Course content

This topic will introduce students to the practice of maritime archaeology.

Throughout the topic, students will:

• examine some of the maritime archaeological field skills used in the underwater environment as well as in coastal and intertidal setting
• develop selected maritime archaeological field skills
• address the methodologies used in underwater and coastal archaeology
• develop an understanding of maritime archaeology.

While SCUBA diving is not a requirement, students can choose to participate in SCUBA diving as part of the course^*. SCUBA Divers must register with the University Dive Officer no later than one week before the start date.

It is strongly recommended that divers register ASAP:

^* If students choose to undertake SCUBA diving as part of the topic (not required), SCUBA diving qualifications are mandatory. As a minimum, students will need to hold a certified open water diving certificate, have logged a minimum of 18 hours, have a current diving medical certificate and have carried out a diving competency test. Flinders University has strict requirements for diving and boating safety.

Learning outcomes

On completing this topic students will have:

• developed some of the field skills associated with the practice of maritime archaeology, specifically underwater recording, drawing and photography
• demonstrated an improved understanding of the methodological approaches to underwater and coastal archaeology
• increased their knowledge and understanding of the history and practice of maritime archaeology.

Assessment

Students will be assessed on their participation, field notebooks and field report for their grade. Short course students may select a Non-Graded Pass/Fail option.

Credit

Participants who complete the assessments are supplied with a Certificate of Achievement which states that the short course is equivalent to a 4.5-unit topic. Participants should be able to use this to negotiate credit with their home institution, which we recommend they do prior to making arrangements to attend this field school.

Dr Jonathan Benjamin FSA is a specialist in maritime and underwater archaeology. His research interests include past human transitions and cultural migrations, the inundation of coastal sites and resulting impacts on past societies, 3D site recording and the advancement of method in maritime and underwater archaeology. He is an expert in diver-based photographic and photogrammetric recording of underwater archaeological sites.