Maritime cultural landscape

(English below)
De Zuiderzee is vanaf de late middeleeuwen tot de afsluiting in 1932 het dagelijkse vaargebied geweest van vele binnenschippers. Zij spelen een bescheiden rol binnen de maritieme geschiedschrijving van Nederland, omdat hun activiteiten nauwelijks sporen hebben achtergelaten in de archieven. Toch zijn er bronnen om deze tak van de scheepvaart te onderzoeken: de meer dan 450 scheepswrakken die hier vanaf de eerste inpolderingen tot en met recente duikoperaties zijn aangetroffen.

Dit proefschrift gaat dieper in op de betekenis van deze scheepsarcheologische vindplaatsen aan de hand van een casestudy: de turfvaart tussen 1550 en 1700. Onderzocht wordt in hoeverre de spectaculaire sociaaleconomische ontwikkeling die Holland in deze periode doormaakte, verband houdt met de Zuiderzee als centrum van een omvangrijk maritiem transportlandschap. Verschillende invalshoeken belichten het vervoer van turf over deze binnenzee: van macro-economische analyses tot een reconstructie van het dagelijkse leven van de turfschippers.

De historische maritieme archeologie van de turfvaart biedt zowel een vernieuwende kijk op het maritieme verleden van Nederland als een kader voor het interpreteren van scheepswrakken. Het beeld dat uit deze studie is ontstaan, zal bijdragen aan de herwaardering van het unieke erfgoed dat nog steeds voor een belangrijk deel verborgen ligt in de bodem van de voormalige Zuiderzee.

Summary

From the late Middle Ages up to its closure in 1932 the Zuiderzee harboured a substantial amount of trade routes for the daily transport of cargo in all directions. The inland skippers, although large in numbers, played a modest role in the Dutch maritime history, as their activities hardly left a significant trace in the paper archives. The main source of information of this maritime activity is the unique archaeological archive of more than 450 shipwrecks found in this area during land reclamation projects and recent dive investigations.

This PhD thesis features a case study that highlights the significance of these archaeological ship finds in relation to the maritime trade of peat, the main source of energy for pre-modern economy. It explores the extent to which the spectacular socio-economic development of Holland between 1550 and 1700 AD can be attributed to the Zuiderzee functioning as a hub in an extensive maritime transport landscape. The transport of peat across this inner sea is addressed from different angles, ranging from macro-economic analyses to the reconstruction of the daily routines of peat skippers.

The historical maritime archaeology of peat shipping offers a new historic perspective to the maritime past of The Netherlands and may well serve as a framework for future research into shipwrecks and their interpretation in a historical context. This PhD thesis contributes to a renewed appreciation for the unique cultural heritage that is still largely hidden in the seabed of the former Zuiderzee.






















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Free download (September 23, 2021): https://research.rug.nl/nl/publications/de-zuiderzee-als-transportlandschap-historische-maritieme-archeol

The daily lives of Achill Island's inhabitants were heavily influenced by their relationships with the ocean, its resources and the seasons. Ireland's largest island, situated along its predominantly rural western coast, Achill remains in many ways idyllic and pastoral, descriptors used in the modern and recent historic era to draw tourists but also used in previous centuries to denigrate the culture and lifeways of the islands' inhabitants. Achill Island's maritime landscape, including its shoreline and coastal resources, was one of contest during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The island and its surrounding waters formed an active landscape within which the island's population resisted government control by maintaining, as much as possible and in some cases against government order, their preferred relationships with the ocean and its resources. Methods developed by the islanders for boatbuilding, natural resource exploitation, agriculture, labour, and travel related directly to the maritime landscape; these practices also relied on familial and extra-familial groups that provided community cohesion and a support network that allowed for cultural resilience. Achill's residents structured agricultural, labour and maritime practices according to seasonal cycles and traditional practice, often not in the manner preferred by landlords and government bodies charged with improving rural living standards. Archaeological, archival and ethnographic evidence shows that the islanders' practices, uniquely adapted to the maritime and terrestrial conditions of Achill, were in many ways better suited both to their daily lives and their surrounding environment than those imposed by external agents.

In October 2013, the University of Balamand conducted a one-month underwater visual survey along the coast at the archaeological site of Anfeh, reaching from the promontory of Ras al-Natour in the north to the Barghoun River in the south. The site is located some 70 km north of Beirut, on a nose-shaped promontory called Ras al-Qalaat. The occupation of the site stretches from the Ottoman period back to potentially the Bronze Age. Subsequent to sporadic underwater surveys in the past century, the 2013 survey was the first scientific endeavour of its kind at the site, and sought an appreciation of the maritime cultural landscape of the site of Anfeh. It succeeded in providing a preliminary assessment of the underwater cultural heritage of the area, while recording the spatial distribution of artefacts, as well as the underwater physical features. In order to carry out successful and systematic diving operations, as well as to record archaeological and topographical assets, an accurate bathymetry map of the targeted area was produced. The greater potential of future research at Anfeh lies in understanding the
relationship its ancient peoples had with the sea in terms of exploiting maritime resources, navigating its waters, and accordingly modifying the landscape through time.

This thesis investigates the maritime cultural landscape of Point Pearce Mission/ Burgiyana, in the Yorke Peninsula/Guuranda region of South Australia. The research seeks to understand Indigenous maritime activities within a defined conceptual framework through a case study-based, inductive and interpretive approach. This interpretation perceives the participation of Indigenous peoples in Australia’s maritime industry as an important component of Australian maritime heritage with the potential to shed light on a number of areas including boatbuilding, labouring in the shipping trade—both at sea and on land—and working in the fishing economy. Previous archaeological research has not employed a maritime cultural landscape framework to explore issues of importance to Indigenous communities. The framework, arguably one of the most popular in the maritime archaeology field, is derived from research conducted in Europe and hence has had a Western focus and research agenda. Further, maritime archaeological studies have neglected Indigenous missions as potential sites/landscapes and, similarly, archaeological research at missions has largely ignored maritime aspects.

This study is based upon the collection of 13 oral histories, as well as terrestrial, coastal and underwater archaeological investigations and primary archival research. The data was collated taking into account the 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape as advocated by Westerdahl (2008, 2011). The latter information was then used to explore the usefulness and suitability of the maritime cultural landscape approach in an Indigenous Australian post-contact context. In particular, an assessment of the maritime cultural landscape was conducted in this research to consider whether it provided the necessary suite of methods (and associated rationale) to accommodate a cohesive recording of areas important to Indigenous Australian communities (i.e. beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences) and whether it provided a useful interpretive structure.

The research reveals that the maritime cultural landscape framework is generally, with qualifications, suitable for the investigation of Indigenous Australian post- contact contexts and is worthwhile in the sense that it can foreground the contribution of Indigenous peoples in Australia’s maritime industry. The aforementioned 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape are demonstrated in this research to be flexible across contexts, however several issues emerge from this case study. These issues have been broadly grouped into five themes as follows: 1) Colonial archives and local histories often silence Aboriginal peoples; 2) Maritime cultural landscape facets need to encompass non-Western systems of knowledge; 3) Maritime archaeology discourse and underpinning attitudes need to be deconstructed; 4) Maritime archaeology in Australia is generally Eurocentric; and 5) Oral histories are an integral source for exploring Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes. Consequently, it is argued that the maritime cultural landscape approach should be adopted more frequently, taking into account Indigenous themes in maritime archaeology, although the research process should be carefully examined for Eurocentricity. Additionally, the outcomes of the project illustrate that Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes are not only a prominent part of the Australian landscape, but also provoke reconsiderations regarding how we see the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology. The implications of these findings are that the seascape framework is not the only concept available within maritime archaeology for investigating Indigenous contexts. As a result, it is proposed that maritime archaeologists should consider employing a maritime cultural landscape framework within other themes of cultural contact, as well as at missions situated on other waterways and in similar contexts in other countries.