3 - An Archaeology of the Sea

Summary

In this chapter, I wish to explore the ways in which the sea may be embodied and materialised through the practice of everyday life and as such how this may be used to our advantage in developing an archaeology of the sea. To achieve this, I ask the question what is special and different about being a member of a maritime community? This requires an understanding, derived from ethnographic, sociological and historical studies, of how a phenomenology or embedded perception of the sea may be embodied and, perhaps more importantly, identified in material culture. This takes the chapter beyond vision, so often a preoccupation with studies in landscape and other forms of archaeology (see Hamilakis 2001 and forthcoming and Rainbird 2002b and forthcoming for further discussion of this issue) and considers the context of differential synaesthesia derived through the practical historical experience of social actors. Issues of maritime-linked material culture are then considered. Having explored these, a preliminary consideration is given to how such embodiments of the seas might be identified as an archaeology of the sea.

The sea is a knowable place. In the same way that landscapes have to be understood also as visionscapes, soundscapes, touch-scapes and smellscapes (Tilley 1999), the sea is a textured place. A person approaching the sea from the land in a strong onshore breeze can attest to the bitter taste of salt that is driven by the wind into the mouth and drying the throat, providing both a ‘tastescape’ and a physical reaction.