Postface. On Underwater Séances and Punk Eulogies

Abstract

The postface to the book’s five chapters provides a summary of the overarching argument, which is that nautical archaeology bears with its contemporary practice its Early Modern origins in Christian theology. The resurrection—or savior-scholar—model of nautical archaeology is revisited and critiqued for its tendencies toward paternalism and interventionism, features that appear to replicate key theological tenets emphasizing an existential and ontological hierarchy, with humans occupying the pinnacle. In contrast, the postface conjures Spinoza and Feuerbach in a séance to offer an archaeology of shipwrecks whose comparatively anarchic method relies on insurrection rather than resurrection.

6 Shipwreck archaeology in the past 10 years

“…The traditional theory books of maritime archaeology courses, Keith Muckelroy’s Maritime Archaeology (1978) and Richard Gould’s edited volume Shipwreck Anthropology (1983), have become dated as they centre heavily on processual and post-processual archaeology. The application of contemporary philosophy to maritime archaeology not only returns agency to the sea (Campbell 2020), but allows us to reconsider our assumptions and the practice of archaeology under water (Rich 2021). The timing is significant, as other fields in the humanities have sought maritime-ontological approaches, including Oceanic Thought and the Blue Humanities, which maritime archaeologists should be contributing to and learning from (Steinberg and Peters 2015; Mentz 2023).…”