Acquisition of Boat, Tow Vehicle and Trailer for Maritime Survey, Ghana, West Africa

在国家科学基金会重大研究仪器奖的支持下，雪城大学麦克斯韦公民与公共事务学院人类学系将获得一艘船、一辆四轮驱动拖车和一辆拖车，用于水下考古调查和挖掘。这些设备将支持首席研究员对欧洲海上贸易和非洲-欧洲在加纳沿海中部地区相互作用的考古记录进行长期研究，并促进在非洲进行的同类最全面的考古调查之一。该基金还将通过论文研究项目、硕士论文和本科生实地学校来支持研究生和本科生的培训。就知识价值而言，加纳沿海地区的研究考察了公元第二个千年期间非洲社会的社会文化转型，特别强调了大西洋世界时代的贸易、社会组织和技术变革。该项目以考古记录为重点，采用全面、跨学科的视角，将文献来源和口头传统与从陆地和水下遗址获得的数据相结合。对大西洋贸易的性质和后果的研究将得到来自该地区一些主要欧洲贸易港口的年代久远的贸易材料和来自欧洲沉船的货物的帮助。沉船，特别是早期葡萄牙人探索非洲海岸的沉船，也将为了解早期欧洲海事技术提供重要的见解。所提供的船只和拖曳设备将用于进行磁力计和侧扫声纳调查，以确定与该地区一些最重要的贸易港口有关的潜在水下沉船地点。潜水员将调查已确定的目标，确定哪些是重要的历史遗迹。最后，考古学家将对最有希望的沉船进行更深入的研究，包括挖掘以确定船只的日期、国籍和航行目的（即贸易、运输、海军防御等）。所获得的信息将对加纳沿海以外的考古方法和理论产生更广泛的影响。海洋和陆地研究都将采取整体的、区域的观点。从方法上看，世界许多地区的工作表明，从区域角度看问题对追踪长期变化具有重要意义。这个视角隐含着多尺度的优势，从文物到场地，从场地到区域。结合文化历史（时间）框架，这提供了一种手段，从特定地点的问题转向更广泛的区域贸易模式、供应、身份和社会政治变化等问题。该项目还将对其他地区的水下考古作出重要贡献，在非洲，水下考古仍处于早期阶段。该项目将提供对本区域的第一次全面海洋调查，事实上，它将是在非洲进行的最全面的区域调查之一。该项目的数据将为今后的工作提供一个更区域性的方法模型。

With support from a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Award, the Department of Anthropology, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University will acquire a boat, four-wheel drive tow vehicle, and a trailer to be used for underwater archaeological survey and excavation. The equipment will support the principal investigator's long-term research on the archaeological record of European maritime trade and African-European interactions in the Central Region of coastal Ghana, and facilitate one of the most comprehensive archaeological surveys of its kind yet undertaken in Africa. The grant will also support both graduate and undergraduate training through dissertation research projects, MA theses, and undergraduate field schools. In terms of intellectual merit, the research in coastal Ghana examines sociocultural transformations in African societies during the second millennium AD, with particular emphasis on trade, social organization, and technological change during the era of the Atlantic World. Focusing on the archaeological record, the project takes a holistic, interdisciplinary perspective that integrates documentary sources and oral traditions with data obtained from both terrestrial and underwater sites. Study of the nature and consequences of the Atlantic trade will be aided by well-dated trade materials from some of the region's principal European trade ports and cargoes from European shipwrecks. Shipwrecks, particularly from the early period of Portuguese exploration of the African coast, will also provide important insight into early European maritime technology. The boat and towing equipment provided will be used to conduct a magnetometer and side-scan sonar survey to identify potential submerged shipwreck sites associated with some of the regions most important trade ports. Divers will investigate the targets identified, determining which represent significant historic sites. Finally, archaeologists will then conduct more intensive studies of the most promising ship wrecks, including excavations to determine the vessel's date, nationality, and purpose of voyage (i.e. trade, transport, naval defense, etc.). The information obtained will have broader impact on archaeological method and theory beyond coastal Ghana. Both the marine and terrestrial research will take a holistic, regional perspective. Methodologically, work in many world areas has demonstrated the importance of a regional perspective in tracing long-term change. This perspective is implicitly multi-scale in vantage, from artifacts to the site, from the site to the region. Combined with a cultural historical (chronological) framework, this provides a means to move from site-specific questions to the much broader issues of regional trade patterns, provisioning, identity and socio-political change. The project will also be an important contribution to underwater archaeology in other areas, which is still in its early stages in Africa. The project will provide the first comprehensive marine survey of the region and, indeed, it will be one of the most comprehensive regional surveys undertaken in Africa. The data from the project will provide a model for a more regional approach in future works.