In the original dust jacket. Turquoise cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

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Examines some of the most significant discoveries in marine archaeology, providing fascinating firsthand accounts, vivid illustrations, and archaeological analyses of submerged sites from Scandinavia to Middle America dating back to 1200 B.C. This edition is very rare and is noted in the obituary below on Keith Muckelroy.

Keith Muckelroy (1951-1980) was a pioneer of maritime archaeology. Instead of the traditional particularist or historiographic approach used by maritime archaeologists, Muckelroy’s ideas were new to the field, influenced by the prehistoric and analytical archaeology he learned under Grahame Clark and David Clarke at Cambridge, the tenets of processual archaeology gaining traction in the U.S., and his own experiences on shipwreck sites in British waters, notably the 1664 Dutch East Indiaman Kennemerland, several Spanish Armada wrecks, and the Mary Rose.

Research, theories, and publications: In 1976, he published a paper in which he proposed a theory for the formation of shipwreck sites. He later expanded this and other theories in his seminal publication, a book titled Maritime Archaeology. With his discussion on shipwreck formation processes, he introduced terms such as “extracting filters” and “scrambling devices” into the lexicon, and used statistical models to clarify large bodies of data in order to discern patterns in the wrecking process, ideas that had never been proposed before. These ideas coincided nicely with processual archaeology’s call for a more scientific, analytic methodology. Muckelroy’s shipwreck formation theory became a classic model for interpretation of wreck sites and even today, either his original paper or his later book are referenced regularly in studies on the archaeology of shipwrecks.

Muckelroy’s other prominent contribution was a three-part interpretive framework for better understanding the ship in its original social context. The three aspects he proposed were 1. The ship as a machine designed for harnessing a source of power in order to serve as a means of transport; 2. The ship as an element in a military or economic system, providing its basic raison d’être; and 3. The ship as a closed community, with its own hierarchy, customs, and conventions. This basic model has proven useful to many maritime archaeologists seeking to understand the role of ships as part of a greater cultural system.

Muckelroy also edited an atlas of underwater archaeological sites. His research covered the Kennemerland, Bronze Age cargoes and trade and terrestrial archaeology.