More than Meets the Eye: A Preliminary Report on Artifacts from the Sediment of Site 31CR314, Queen Anne's Revenge , An Eighteenth-century Shipwreck Off Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina
2016; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 35; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/0734578x.2016.1139430
ISSN2168-4723
Autores Tópico(s)Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
ResumoThe excavation of 31CR314, an eighteenth-century shipwreck identified by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources as Queen Anne's Revenge, off Beaufort, North Carolina, produced innumerable small artifacts from the sediment. In addition to objects of metal, glass, lithics, wood, and bone, thousands of microartifacts were recovered from the dredge spoil using a sluice and screen system. These microartifacts provide another layer of evidence, corroborating the current hypotheses regarding site formation processes, namely that the site represents a grounded vessel exposed to repeated periods of scour and reburial over nearly 300 years. The evidence provides a model for the formation of shipwreck sites in similar dynamic sand bar environments, where such sites would be exposed to the filtering of light artifacts, and the potential downward migration of artifacts into the substrate. Work at the site has shown that the extricating microartifacts from the sediment, although time-consuming, can make a significant contribution to understanding site formation processes.
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