News

***UASC February 2022 MEETING****

Wednesday, February 23rd @ 07:00 PM CST – Meeting of Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago

Featured Presenter at 8:00 PM: Ben Ford Ph.D., Chair, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Presenting: Introduction to Coastal Archaeology - Archaeological Investigations that Span the Waterline Can Contribute Significantly to Our Understanding of the Past 

Meeting timetable:

Social: 06:30 – 07:00 PM CST, Business Meeting: 07:00 – 08:00 PM, Presentations: 08:00 – 09:00 PM CST (or later, if necessary)

Meeting Zoom Registration link (NOTE: MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE):

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYufu6hpj0tGNYnyfqsdaowsDEmdQ-sgMXO

 Introduction to Coastal Archaeology - Archaeological Investigations that Span the Waterline Can Contribute Significantly to Our Understanding of the Past

Ships and their cargoes were produced on land, as were most sailors; but much of maritime archaeology tends to focus on watery disasters rather than the origins and destinations of ships, sailors, and cargoes. While shipwrecks were important to maritime peoples of the past, these mariners were much more concerned with the results of successful voyages. Through a wide range of examples, it becomes clear that people in the past saw the coast as a far more permeable boundary than modern archaeologists. This lecture draws on the author’s research, as well as published sources, to introduce coastal archaeology and argue that archaeological investigations that span the waterline can contribute significantly to our understanding of the past.  

Biography:

Ben Ford is the Chair of the Anthropology Department at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in maritime and historical archaeology. Ben’s Ph.D. from Texas A&M University was preceded by several years of cultural resource management experience and degrees from the College of William and Mary and the University of Cincinnati. He recently published The Shore is a Bridge: The Maritime Cultural Landscape of Lake Ontario and Our Blue Planet: An Introduction to Maritime and Underwater Archaeology (with Jessi Halligan and Alexis Catsambis). He has also edited the Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology, The Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes, and New Life for Old Collections (with Rebecca Allen). Ben is a Registered Professional Archaeologist and the 2015 Archaeological Institute of America McCann-Taggart Underwater Archaeology Lecturer. His current research focuses on 18th-centruy connections across the Mid-Atlantic region and includes work at Historic Hanna’s Town, a Revolutionary War era town in Pennsylvania, and Fort Necessity National Battlefield, as well as underwater archaeology work in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.