ASV Publications

A Practical Guide to Maritime Archaeology: with a Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region (Special Publicaton) Paperback – February 8, 2023 by Dr. John D. Broadwater (Author), Bruce Cowden (Illustrator)

Shipwrecks! Pirates! Sunken Treasure! The public never seems to get enough tales of swashbuckling sailors, their ships, and their adventures at sea. While many sea stories spring from the fertile imagination of fiction writers, many others—often rivaling or exceeding fictional accounts for excitement and adventure—are based on facts. Maritime historians and archaeologists scour archives, shorelines, and submerged lands in search of new details about our maritime past. This book introduces readers to the terminology, tools, and techniques used by maritime archaeologists in their quest for new sites that may add important details to the ever-expanding story of humans and their interaction with the seas, bays, and tributaries that link almost all the people of Earth. While the book focuses on New World sites, more specifically the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States, much of the information is relevant to maritime research anywhere. The guide is essentially a textbook on maritime and underwater archaeology for nonprofessionals.
The book begins by describing the various terms relating to archaeology underwater, followed by descriptions of some of the most famous and significant shipwreck discoveries; the following chapters describe the types of maritime sites and provide a step-by-step description of how to develop a research plan, investigate an underwater archaeological site, and share research with others through publications, lectures, and social media. Excavation is not covered since that level of site disturbance should only be done by experienced professional archaeologists. Appendices provide suggestions for further reading, lists of agencies and organizations are involved in maritime archaeology, and detailed instruction and forms for conducting underwater research. The book is written in a conversational style, and the information is detailed, but easy to follow and understand.
The author, John Broadwater, has been conducting maritime archaeology projects for more than fifty years, much of it in the murky waters of the Mid-Atlantic where special methodologies are required to cope with the near-zero visibility. John was Virginia’s first State Underwater Archaeologist, directing a ten-year shipwreck project in the York River. John began diving in 1969 but had no knowledge of archaeological principles or techniques. He was fortunate to be offered opportunities to work with professional maritime archaeologists, but he still values his connections to recreational divers and avocational archaeologists, so he has devoted a great deal of time and effort providing opportunities for those groups to learn about and participate in his research. He was a founder of the Archeological Society of Virginia’s Maritime Heritage Chapter. This book is Broadwater’s most recent effort to promote educational training and opportunities for divers and avocational archaeologists.

The Historical Archaeology of Virginia From Initial Settlement to the Present. $25

Edited by Clarence R. Geier. Chapters cover Virginia history from initial settlement through the 20th century, plus one which deals with the important role of underwater archaeology. Written by prominent archaeologists with research experience in their respective topic areas, the chapters consider important issues of Virginia history and consider how the discipline of historic archaeology has addressed – and needs to address — them. Changes in research strategy over time are discussed, and recommendations are made concerning the need to recognize the diverse and often differing roles and impacts that characterized the different regions of Virginia over the course of its historic past. Significant issues in Virginia history needing greater study are identified.

A Field Guide for Virginia Archaeology (and the Middle Atlantic Region, in General): A Practical Guide to a Dirty Business. $15

Michael B. Barber provides guidelines and instructions on conducting archaeological fieldwork. Written with humor, the author tells you not only how to do the work of archaeology but also why the work needs to be done a certain way. Includes forms that can be reproduced for your own use and a list of recommended readings.

The Henrico Parish Glebe, Varina, Virginia: 44HE229, A Multidisciplinary Case Study $15.

By Clarence R. Geier and Martha W. McCartney. This book introduces the reader to the historical and archaeological evidence of a significant Colonial Period habitation on the James River believed to have been seriously impacted by 17th and 18th century floods and hurricanes. The interpretation of the Henrico Glebe Site, located within Henrico Parish Glebe lands at Varina, opens the door to a discussion of the role of the Church of England in the Virginia Colony and the types of housing parish leaders were obliged to provide to the clergy. Included is a rigorous discussion of Virginia legislation and parish records, as well as a physical description of the diverse residences and service buildings based on archeological findings. Paperback.

The Archaeology of Virginia’s First Peoples. $40

Edited by Elizabeth A. Moore and Bernard K. Means. This volume focuses on Virginia’s pre-European Contact past. It opens with a discussion of Virginia’s physiographic regions by Christopher Egghart, whose dedication to the Commonwealth’s past led him to author over a third of the chapters in this book. In Chapter 2, Egghart discusses the rivers and resources that divide and shape the lands that American Indians traveled across, exploited, and settled and sets the state for a chronological presentation of Virginia’s pre-European Contact American Indian past. Chapter 3, by Dr. Clifford Boyd, emphasizes the Paleoindian period, but also more thoroughly explores the pre-Paleoindian period in a way not possible previously. Dr. Michael Barber then considers, in Chapter 4, the Early Archaic period, which sees major transformations in climate, as the last major Ice Age ended, and Ice Age megafauna that fascinated Thomas Jefferson became extinct. The remainder of the Archaic period and the beginnings of the ceramic era, e.g. the Early Woodland, are considered by Egghart in Chapters 5 to 7. In addition to the introduction of ceramic technology, this span sees an environment that becomes more modern in its character and human settlements increased in size and duration. Dr. Carole Nash then considers the ambiguity that has long characterized the Middle Woodland period in Virginia, as is the case elsewhere in the Middle Atlantic region. This ambiguity vanishes to some degree during the Late Woodland period, which, because of a richer archaeological and ethnohistoric record, is considered in the remaining three chapters in this volume. Dr. Keith Egloff focuses on the Late Woodland cultures of southern Virginia, Drs. Christopher Shephard and Martin Gallivan look at eastern Virginia, and Drs. Bernard K. Means and Elizabeth Moore examine northern Virginia. Much more is known about the Late Woodland of eastern Virginia than the rest of the state, largely because it is here that American Indians and Europeans had the first and most sustained contact before native societies were disrupted—but not eradicated or vanquished as some have argued. In fact, by a happy coincidence, this volume comes out just a year after six American Indian tribes in Virginia received federal recognition: “…the Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock, the Monacan and the Nansemond tribes” (Portnoy 2018). Their recognition is just two years after the first Virginia tribe, the Pamunkey Indians, themselves were so recognized (National Park Service 2015). These are long overdue but ironic recognitions, given that the ancestors of these American Indian tribes lived in Virginia long before the first European even was aware of the rich tapestry of cultures that called Virginia their home. This volume helps tell the story of these American Indians, but is itself incomplete. Hopefully, future iterations of the story of Virginia’s past will include the voices of the American Indians themselves.

Twin Paths to Freedom: The History and Archaeology of James City County’s Free Black Communities. $15

By Martha McCartney. During the first half of the nineteenth century, there were two Free Black settlements in James City County, Virginia: one that was purposefully established, and another whose formation was happenstance. These two communities’ origins and their inhabitants’ personal histories provide unique insights into the life experience of Virginia’s Free Blacks. Among the issues discussed are household composition, employment, living conditions, material culture, family stability, and social mobility. A succinct overview of the laws that governed Africans’ and African Americans’ everyday lives serves as a backdrop for the main narrative. The research of social historians, archaeologists, architectural historians, and experts in the field of material culture is used to recreate the world in which nineteenth century Free Blacks lived.

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