A Brief Overview of Archaeometric Studies in Historical Maritime Archaeology: Some Contributions from Argentina

CIARLO, NICOLÁS C.

The Society for Archaeological Sciences Bulletin

Society for Archaeological Sciences

Año: 2013 vol. 36 p. 3 - 7

This article is an introduction to a new topic in the SAS Bulletin focused on archaeometric research in the fields of historical and maritime archaeology. The importance of these studies has increased during the last decades and is what motivates us to inaugurate a new section in order to communicate developments in these areas through upcoming conferences, courses and fieldwork; published journals and papers; book reviews; recent thesis; innovative methods and techniques; and ongoing investigations. In Argentina, archaeometric research has gained an outstanding place since the new century, partially due to a greater dialog between specialists from different fields. Maritime archaeology was established as a scientific specialty in Argentina during the second half of 1990, being one of the countries in South America that has been extensively focused on research on historical shipwrecks. Since then, archaeometric analyses on artifacts from XVIIth to XXth c. shipwrecks were progressively introduced. Those dedicated to investigations based on metal and wooden remains played a significant role.