The Corolla Wreck/ Your Not Going To Like This!

It has been said that sometimes seeing something from the outside is useful.  This summer I made a pilgrimage to see what the media have been calling the Corolla wreck of North Carolina.  As an archaeologist I am supposed to be impartial, but to tell you the truth I was hoping to see a hull construction of similar style to the Cattewater wreck.  I will have to admit- I was disappointed in this regard.  I know why I wanted to see lapped dovetails between the floors and first futtocks on the remains of this vessel.  I wanted to say- this was produced in the Chesapeake.  Sadly to my colleagues I must voice my opinion- nay!  This wreck lacks both the typical English military or commercial construction techniques for the period. Period.

The frame spacing while regular lacks diagnostic English features- to regular to be Dutch, but to disconnnected to be of the Iberian-Atlantic tradition.  The hull form was flat and broad.  A cargo vessel?  When the hull can't tell the whole story sometimes the artifacts can- coins on the wreck have origins in France and Iberia.  It is most likely therefore- until proper dendro can be done to identify point of origin, that this vessel was part of the early 17th century exploitation of sassafras and other herbs and woods along the coast from Florida to North Carolina by the French Diaspora (see Waselkov 2009).  Construction is similar to La Belle.

Of course much more could have been learned and there would have been less debate in the future if this important wreck had been protected better.  A hint to local government to take better care of its submerged resources.

I was asked what I was working on so here we go! I am looking for a publisher- can you recommend one?

The Sea of Time Meets the Sands of the Desert of the Real.

Preface:

Many will find the authorship of this book to be somewhat problematic as Gell, Munn, and Lucas have contributed so much to the study of the anthropology and archaeology of time.  The author finds it necessary to give the lay reader examples of some of the problems and potential deeper research which can be conducted upon the topic.  This will be conducted through a survey of the current literature, but also through case examples the author has encountered in the field.  Chapter 1 gives a general overview of the development of the material culture of time, while chapter 2 deals with the development of the current theories in regards to its cognition.  chapter 3 harkens back to my studies at the College of William and Mary and gives a case study in the anthropology of time and space through the horological artifacts recovered during the early excavation of Colonial Williamsburg during the 1920’s and 1930’s.  Moving away from time and space I will then examine the relationship between time and economy in chapter 4 based upon the artifacts recovered by the Archaeological Society of Virginia at Gould Hill (44Hn121) now part of the permanent collections at the Virginia Museum of Natural History.  Chapter 5 and 6 will deal with the diffusion of Clock Calendar Time (CCT) through the mode of temporal devices at sea.  This will be done in two parts, chapter 5 dealing with the reference to time in historical accounts, and chapter 6 dealing with the listed temporal artifacts on wrecks during the age of discovery through the mass emigration of the European diaspora.  The final chapter will look at how in the post modern world hailed by Baudrillard still makes use of time as a construct, a construct which is intrinsically linked to the creation of a mass diaspora of globalized people in the New World and Asia starting in the 16^th century.   It is the author’s intent not to be concise on the topic of the archaeology of time, but rather to inform and inspire further research on this topic.

Introduction:

           

            This text which is the accumulation of papers and previous work has been a project undertaken with the heart of the beginning scholar; having been started under those pretenses as a senior scholar would have had second thoughts about its undertaking.

The Grand Old Lady...

http://www.maritimearchaeology.dk/?p=726

This Summer Was Great!!!!!

http://www.maritimearchaeology.dk/?p=768

Vikings!!!!!!

http://www.maritimearchaeology.dk/?p=712

Inspiration:

I have recently been asked by a friend and colleague how it is I came to be attracted to archaeology through the Archaeology Society of Virginia, and as I am having a sleepless night I have decided to take a break from writing my thesis proposal and the constitution of the VMHSCA and perhaps explain.  When I was young I wasn't like the other kids around me who played video games or soccer, for one my family was too poor to afford a sega or the like, though I would go to friends houses to play on occasion.  I relished the opportunity to learn and explore as I knew from an early age the expense of education. If I had a thought in my head I was never troubled or worried when working, and I was helping my family out with chores and manual labor at an early age.  History is full of the stories of those individuals who started out small, but worked to be comfortable.  History holds stories that if we just take time to listen and read and speak that can lift the spirit of the most downtrodden and give hope to the hopeless.  History can take the pain away from the wounded by giving them strength in past peoples virtues.  It can give a future to those that society has given up on, these things I ardently believe.

I will not be able to reach everyone who needs that encouragement, and lord knows that a lot of people think I am crazy for doing this in a grassroots manner.  Truth be told, I don't know if my colleagues and I will be able to pull this off.  If one person sees my facebook page and gets inspired to read a book like I did after talking to those members of the ASV, one of which was interested in canal boats, I believe that I have given back what was given to me.  Anything else I do simply helps other people.  I believe that there are children and adults out there searching for a group or even a person to share their stories with.  I am here to listen; more importantly I am here to bring like minded people together.  It will be like with me, the ASV led me to Middleton's Tobacco Coast, and the dream which has not only kept me going, but has given me the strength to help others when I have had nay sayers barking at me.

When it is all said and done- I will give this organization my all because I believe in it.  I hope that if anything I inspire in someone to stand up for what they believe in.  I hope that the VMHSCA grows and I will nurture it and protect it as well as all of its members.  I am simple and so are the rest of the members who have voiced their support.  I am simply here for the first little bit to listen; to everyone who wants to speak or be a part.  I will not try to make people do things by collusion.  I want honest, simple people who want to do the work because they want to and they enjoy it.  I don't want people with egos who don't want to share the show and contribute or listen.  The world does not owe me anything, and we must all earn our place in it; whatever that place may be.  The person you inspire today however, may shape the world in greater ways than you could ever imagine.  That is the greatest of all successes, to be an honest teacher.  A teacher who listens, who inspires by their own actions and not by association, one that honestly cares.

This leads into the second question I have been asked by my colleague, "How do I hold the children's interest?"  Truthfully, you won't; at least not the majority of them.  Some will not have the ability to understand the need, and others will have no desire or passion to do so.  One out of a hundred will see your passion for what you do and be inspired, and only a hundred of those will keep the passion to become teachers.  History and archeology have always been my passion, even now the simple person that I am.  It is a undefinable quantity that I can wrap myself up in like a blanket when my very soul gets cold from my trampling in the working world.  Those people who feel the same are seeking the spark of inspiration, all you have to do is be there.  I am here for my own purpose; I enjoy what I do.  Others will eventually follow, they always have.

The First Interest Meeting-

It has been said that an organization is only as good as those people who run it. With that I can honestly say that the first meeting of the Virginia Maritime Heritage Society and Conservation Association was a resounding success. While the first meeting drew few people in person, those that showed up have more passion and enthusiasm to make up the difference. We discussed the need and the urgency of founding an agency to deal with the maritime heritage of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I made a promise to myself that if just one other ardent person showed up that I would write a constitution and do the remaining footwork.

Those people who showed up reminded me that a passion like the one I have is rare, we are the people who will work for minimum wage to support our endeavors and to spread history to those who would listen. There are many agencies that have a foot in Virginia with respect to the preservation of its heritage and they are welcome to engage and contribute as I write the constitution for review for those who will be our members. We are not here to usurp the established, but to assist and contribute. While I will be asking for those who are interested patience, I have put myself out there for criticism for a reason. I believe that any person or authority should be challenged. I am here to ask humbly for adv ice while I attempt to create and lead this organization. It is with that in mind that I have created the facebook ‘election’ page under our facebook group. All ideas will continue to be read and considered, and I vow to give credit to where it is due.



While I am busy trying to establish myself as a practicing maritime archaeologist, I remind myself that I would not have gotten this far if I had not met two members of the Archaeological Society of Virginia at a state fair when I was six. The constitution and articles of incorporation will be heavy in regards to outreach for this very reason. We need the help of the already established in the fields respective to Virginia’s heritage, but it is our goal to reach those they currently cannot. If we step on toes, we apologize, but any good person of the creed of teaching will recognize that you celebrate and nurture your student’s successes, even if it means you are not a part of it. Similarly, I will not fight against any established organization; such an action is not in the Commonwealth’s best interest. I hope that you will join me in this endeavor and once again ask for your help and support. Remember that every little bit helps! And everyone is welcome to help if they want to preserve, curate, and disseminate the history of the maritime culture of Virginia.



Sincerely,

Jason Lunze



Graduate Candidate in Maritime Archaeology at

The University of Southern Denmark.



Jlunz09@student.sdu.dk

Jason.lunze@gmail.com

Of Cow Ear Tags and Interest Meetings-

I never expected or even wanted to be a world traveler; that being said it has been tough to go away from the country and the region that I love so much for so long. The study abroad has been fascinating and rewarding but my followers will have to forgive if I have not put up a post recently. I had the greatest time of my life this summer being onboard the Swedish warship Vasa. We, the maritime archaeology students of the University of Southern Denmark successfully recorded a large portion of the orlop deck using total station. One of my fellow students even went so far as to create a plug-in to integrate the total station directly to laptop, a wonder that is beyond my comprehension. The ship is erie and more cramped than its stunning exterior would have one believe.

The greatest news is that I might be working on my thesis on the Vasa, which is the period that interests me the most, the early 17th century. This is the same period that the colonies of North America were formed. It is with this love that even on my summer vacation locked in by a loving family, which really does not want to share my time with my other passions, gave me a brief break to see something related to my studies. I went to see the earliest wreck in North Carolina at the Currituck Lighthouse. I had the great luxury of speaking with one of the great park rangers who had the distinct honor to help in its recovery. The wreck has been surveyed in the same manner as our program with the Vasa but from East Carolina University who Have ironical now gone to record the lower gundeck on the Vasa while I have returned to the States. While the Carolla Wreck was covered with tarps to prevent further damage to it I got chills from looking at it; also from my studies in Europe I was able to glean something of its construction tradition. This wreck will soon be moved to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, North Carolina for public display and exhibition.

Shortly after this adventure I went to Florida to visit my German grandmother at her home in central Florida where I managed to pick up cow ear tags. Now what in the world would a college student want with cow ear tags you might ask? Well to make the story short; they are needed for this summers other field school through SDU; excavating the Princessan Hedwig Sophia, a Swedish 74 gun frigate which sank in 1715 in the Baltic. The tags will be used to mark the timbers of the wreck as SDU, the University of Kiel, and the Archaeological authorities of Schleswig-Holstein slowly excavate it. I did manage to get some rest while I was there and took a few pictures of its beautiful karst topography. While traveling around I was reading and writing on my potential thesis and began to wonder about how a humble geology major had managed to come this far, a thought which instantly reminded me how rich I am to have the family which has always supported my endeavors, while at times being baffled by my choices.

When I finally arrived back home it was the Birthday of my home country and I relished some good old family bar’ b’ que time. And shortly after went out to the Blue Ridge Mountains to visit family and see some of the areas which are still in my heart. I am currently working on clocks with my father, as this is one of the ways my family not only earns needed additional income in these hard times, but also holds some of our traditions and heritage together. It is with this that I have been archiving a clock in our family collection that is from the 3rd quarter of the 17th century to better my understanding of the traditions of its manufacture. I am also preparing for another tradition; the meeting to discuss the current issues of maritime archaeology in Virginia. Even on vacation from school I am thinking about what I can do to help the discipline and helping the next generation to become inspired. It has been my travels visiting my family which has inspired me and kept me going and I look forward to meeting the few people who can make it to the meeting of the Virginia Maritime Heritage Society and Conservation Association at the Green Leafe Pub and Grill in Williamsburg’s New Town shopping center this Saturday. I will be coming to be humbled as much as I am coming to bring new knowledge.

Well, I have reached the end of the semester and it is time to rehash some of the lessons I have learned from this past semester as a student.  While I am generally good at studying I will be the first to admit that I lack many of the social graces that my peers have.  To counteract this and the often loneliness which accompanies it I have found that a simple walk to the beach as you can see above goes a long way to helping me clear my mind of the stressful thoughts of graduate school- namely, how in the hell will I continue to pay for this, but that is a subject for another forthcoming blog post.  The beach is also a great place to walk and learn about my discipline, both the geologic and in regards to material culture.  The beach from Esbjerg to Hjerting preserves many features of shore infrastructure such as piers and the occasional ship timbers which come ashore after storms.  The beach is also littered with pottery shards which date from the 19^th c. all the way back to the beginning of the Iron Age.  There is also a large secondary limonite deposit near Hjerting and its associated Iron Age settlements, which comes as no surprise to me.  The area is also littered with the German bunkers which made up the Atlantic Wall during World War II.

            Classes are enjoyable with this semester’s courses being Maritime Material Culture, Special Topics on Iron Age Logboats, and Information Technology.  Only one of these classes has been bringing me any grief, and that is the Special Topics course.  I have worked in independent study environment before and co-authored papers, but working with other students who may not share your interpretation of reference sources or writing style can often be frustrating for all.  Luckily the faculty have been very accommodating in scheduling deadlines for this semester as we all learn how to work in groups in a cohesive manner, putting our ego’s aside.  I am looking forward to finishing up this semester and working on recording material related to the Swedish Warship Vasa in two weeks.  There will be a blog post on this later this summer.  I am also looking forward to participating in field observations in Germany this summer on the 1715 Princessan Hedwig Sophia wreck in the Baltic, a large Swedish Frigate from the Great Northern Wars.

            With classes being interesting it is also nice in conjunction with other hands on activities provided by my university to actually handle pre-19^th c. ship timbers such as those which can be seen in the picture above.  These were dredged up from a wreck not far from the city of Esbjerg and the wreck will hopefully be examined better this fall.  It is nice to see and handle such timbers as this is valuable experience which goes beyond reading the narratives assigned in our courses reading list.  It is one thing to read about the different types of treenails in the literature; far better to see one in the light before your eyes.  I have to be amazed at the level of preservation in the Wadden Sea, there were still patches of pitched hemp caulking on these planks which could be up to 400 years old.  I have to apologize for the blurry picture.  It was also a great opportunity to practice albeit briefly my archaeological drawing skills and cut a dendro sample.  Many of my peers have complained of my poor drawing skills so I am taking the time to learn how to properly do so for the future. 

            Even with all this positive stimuli and gleaned knowledge many of my friends have noticed that I have been going to the beach more often as of late and I have been less demure on them harmlessly picking on my American origins.  It has been ten months since I walked on the beaches of my birth state and I sorely miss my own native land.  I will most likely, after spending some time with family and friends back home this summer realize that there is no difference, but as of this week I cannot convince my conscience of this.  I am also thinking about the goal of helping those in Virginia trying to bring back a sustained presence of submerged archaeology there.  I was recently in contact with the Department of Historic Resources and much has been accomplished in my absence while I have been studying in Europe.  I will be meeting in Williamsburg with colleagues this summer to try and see if I can assist in this endeavor as well as give my humble opinions.  With all this going on I have been honored by having some of the greatest friends a person could ever have; see the picture above.  It is nice to plan for things which might happen in the future but my friends have reminded me that it is also nice to live in the moment and enjoy every day of learning.

Training and Camaraderie.

I wrote in my previous blog that there is a perpetual ethos intertwined with the discipline of maritime archaeology.  While I love to go sport diving, few people know how uncomfortable commercial diving is.  The equipment is heavy and the hours are long.  Maritime archaeology is more akin to commercial diving than sport diving and you need to love the discipline in order to tolerate it.  Diving is a tool by which the archaeologist is enabled to answer the questions he has asked through careful planning and research on land.

 This being said there is a great camaraderie here at The University of Southern Denmark as many of the students work together to earn our Danish commercial diving certificates.  The best dives I have taken in my life have always been night dives, and here in Denmark has been no exception.  Being in a blackout is perfect training for the near zero visibility which can be expected on many wrecks.  A wreck didn’t end up where it is usually because it sprang a leak, but rather because the bad conditions on a bad day of diving are a sunny day in comparison to whatever sank the vessel you are diving on.  I enjoy a night dive in that it really makes you focus on your surroundings.

On a normal dive you’ll probably have several meters visibility, whereas with a night dive you have two meters of visibility in a sphere which is your world for the dive.  You begin to notice things you’ve missed on other dives due to this limited world view.  The bottom is covered with snails and starfish you ignored on other dives, and they appear to race across the bottom more quickly.  The amount of time you have to work is the same, and I’ll note to the land archaeologists who might read this, that it takes ten times as long to do anything underwater.  The colors are muted and the darkness is scary to some, but to others like myself it is peaceful.

While the hours limit my time to study, diving will be portion of my work as a maritime archaeologist.  A smaller portion than many who watch popular television will know, however, this is the mystique which is part of the before mentioned ethos.  I plan to do some pleasure diving if possible in the two weeks I have on the East Coast of the US when I return home in July.  I want to see the coast and water of my youth with fresh eyes after I have learned so much from the incredible students and faculty here in Denmark.  Diving in Virginia is probably worse than the diving I have had here, however; the lack of visibility and the presence of strong currents are to a certain degree comparable.

First Interest Meeting:

What is maritime archaeology and what is to be done in Virginia?

When you are taking graduate courses one often forgets that one is part of a larger community of academics and scholars as well as practitioners. It is with these thoughts that I remind myself that I am not undertaking the task of earning my degree in the field of maritime archaeology as per the common reasons; adventure, personal gain, objects, or ego.  I can remember being a small child and having the luxury of being homeschooled and free to travel throughout the state became immersed in the culture of it.  It is with this that I have and still remain rendered with what many would call a regionalist love for my home- the Chesapeake region.  My love for the conservation of objects of cultural heritage began at an early age with my father teaching me clock restoration in the manner of his father’s old world traditions and having my mothers insistence that I learn the history and the landscape they where part of. 

The object reminds us of our past which is the reason why it is so powerful as a tool- anyone who has been to the Mariner’s Museum and seen the screw or turret of the USS Monitor will be thrown back in time to a preceding conflict.  All human experience however, is rendered perceptually different to the individual based upon culture or class or a whole host of other reasons.  Only a handful of people would appreciate the loan ballast pile of a slave ship for the memory it records; while millions go to see the Vasa every year.  This is the paradox which confronts us.  People are different and value things differently, or in some cases not at all.  The key will be to teach and inspire the next generation of maritime archaeologist, local historians, and local interest groups to support the protection of cultural heritage; for the only solution to this problem is to allow the passionate in each field to protect that heritage which they feel a connection with; while the State and Federal levels provide protection for objects and places too big or overlooked in this manner.

The topic of preserving Virginia’s submerged cultural resources is not a new one.  It goes back to the greats of nautical archaeology such as Dr. George Bass and Dr. John Broadwater who with connections gave impetus to the movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  But all too often the little people are forgotten.  It is easy to look up to someone who has a graduate degree or a published book, and rightly so, but at the end of the day my hero’s are still those individuals usually of middle class who volunteer at digs because they want to see their history and by doing so become part of it.  To them falls the burden of reading the books by maritime archaeologists, but when we write them shouldn’t we think about including them?  I have started this society because I believe that there is too much division in Virginia in the archaeological community in regards to submerged cultural resources.  We have great and talented people who are all striving towards the preservation of submerged and terrestrial maritime heritage in Virginia in one facet or another.  However, there still is limited outreach to other organizations between agencies.  This is harming Virginia’s submerged cultural resources by causing inaction in a discipline which requires prompt response times.  I would argue that it hurts us almost as much as looting in the state of Virginia.

The purpose of the Virginia Maritime Heritage Society and Conservation Association as per my thought originally was an organization to bring everyone together.  This means that a member of MAHS could share their information with a member of IMH, ASV, COVA or any other interested party or vice versa.  The museums are welcome to participate in this and it would be clearly beneficial to the maritime archaeology community to begin to interact with their local history and nature museums.  The same goes for historic structures such as plantations and ordinaries as well as domestic terrestrial sites which were linked through mercantilism to a global trade network during the colonial period that persisted through the formation of The United States of America as an independent nation.  For those who are interested I will hold a meeting at the Green Leaf in Williamsburg, Virginia on July 10 from 5:35 to 8:35 in the evening.  I assure you I will be there.

I do not know how many will attend or even consider attending.  I personally have nothing to loose from buying a beer and enjoying the atmosphere of my favorite pub, but for those who would come I will detail some of the things I would like to discuss.  Firstly, who should lead this group?  I will be blunt, I am happy to try my best but I am no leader or social networker by any stretch of the imagination and have done this out of a perceived need for my region.  Who would like to participate and how would we share knowledge with one another?  This of course is the hard part of our business as looting is always an issue in our discipline.  More importantly from my own heart is how will we disseminate knowledge?  Should we have a newsletter in pdf format for all members?  Should we feel obliged to do public school outreach to inspire the next generation?  These of course are only the questions I have, we need many voices to bring answers but also to ask the questions we may have missed.  The success of any organization has nothing to do with making the right choices, but in asking the right questions which take us collectively in the right direction.

For those already established in the discipline no matter what branch thereof, I am not here to step on toes or banter or rave.  I don’t care who protects Virginia’s submerged cultural heritage as long as it goes through the State Archaeologist Mike Barber as well as necessary federal authorities.  I also do not care who inspires the next generation of maritime archaeology in our children at schools as long as it is done with that goal in mind without the backing of a political agenda for one groups benefit.  I do believe that if we as a discipline are going to have any measure of success of having the State of Virginia recognize the importance of this forgotten history to the commonwealth than we need to publish and showcase our work, but more importantly show that we are giving back to the community and not just taking advantage of history and heritage that only we lucky few get to see in person.  I hope that if nothing else this makes others in the Chesapeake region feel as if they are not alone in wanting a source by which they can contribute-

Best,

Jason Lunze

Esbjerg

Photos of Germany spring 2010.

Extra info in form of an interview-

http://www.youtube.com/user/WilliamandMaryGrad

Skallingen Expedition- one picture is worth a thousand words.