Using Multibeam Echo-Sounder Data to Identify Shipwreck Sites: archaeological assessment of the Joint Irish Bathymetric Survey data

Abstract

This paper describes Phase 1 of the project 'Archaeological Applications of the Joint Irish Bathymetric Survey (JIBS) Data', analysing bathymetric and backscatter data derived from multibeam surveys off the north coast of Ireland. In particular, the usability of the data for shipwreck detection, identification and site characterization is explored. In Phase 1, the data was screened for anomalous sea-bed features, which were subsequently described, catalogued and categorized according to their archaeological potential and cross-referenced against existing records. A planned second phase of this project will examine each anomaly in greater detail together with the local and regional hydrodynamic conditions.

Benthic conditions around a historic shipwreck: Vrouw Maria (1771) in the northern Baltic proper

“…1B), a form of acoustic seafloor mapping in high resolution, now commonly undertaken for visual viewing of wreck sites in archaeological studies (e.g. Plets et al, 2011;Westley et al, 2011;Smyth and Quinn, 2014). The wreck leans about four degrees to its starboard side and the bow of the wreck is heading 156°.…”

Detection of shipwrecks in ocean colour satellite imagery

“…The most common techniques used for locating and investigating underwater archaeological sites on a regional scale are waterborne swath acoustic techniques such as side-scan sonar (Quinn et al, 2005) and multibeam echosounder (Plets et al, 2011), and airborne techniques such as bathymetric LiDAR (Shih et al, 2014). In the nearshore waterborne techniques are compromised as search tools because their effective swath is a function of water depth, necessitating very close survey line spacing in shallow water, increasing cost accordingly.…”

Remote identification of a shipwreck site from MBES backscatter

“…When collected together in a suitable GIS system, they can be used to facilitate classification of shipwreck sites on the basis of potential environmental risk (Barrett, 2011). More generally, hydrographic data represents a key element for the management of a PPSW (Hawkins, 2003;Plets et al, 2011).…”