Underwater Archaeology: Week 2 at sea

After a week at sea in the Bahamas and a very brief night on land (thankfully not quite enough time to get used to a full-sized bed with ample headroom to sit up), David and I headed back out to sea for a NOAA-sponsored archaeological cruise with scientists from Mercyhurst University aboard the Weatherbird II research vessel. We left Ocala early to meet a boat captain in Cedar Key and catch a ride out to the anchored ship, which had left its home port in St. Pete a few days before while we were still out in the Bahamas. Our job was to document the expedition via above- and under- water photos and videos. Throughout the day, we participated in team meetings, calls for all hands on deck, and several dives (when the seas were calm enough and weather permitted) while using GoPros, a Nikon D90 in an Ikelite housing, and a giant video camera in a Gates housing to capture the action and make daily video logs about the amazing science team. The scientist were performing underwater archaeology, employing novel field techniques to find out more about our ancestors that lived at the ancient site of the Suwannee River that now lies out in the Middlegrounds in the Gulf of Mexico. Here is the link to our video logs on the NOAA site with a lot more detail about the expedition:

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12newworld/logs/photolog/photolog.html

The research team meeting to discuss the daily activities (Dr. Hemmings, Ryan Duggins, Ben Wells, Jennifer Adler, and David Ulloa). Image courtesy of Exploring the Submerged New World 2012 Expedition, NOAA-OER.

Coming from a world of biologists and marine biology, it was very interesting to view the world through an archaeological lens. Just as there are known field techniques and buzz words in biology that became second nature throughout college and my job at USGS, the same is true for archaeology. The whole experience opened my eyes to this new and different science and allowed me to see the world in a different way. While biologists are trying to understand the world by discovering new species, understanding ecological processes, or studying the life cycles of native and invasive species in an ecosystem, archaeologists dig deeper into our past. It was neat to listen to the grad students, recent PhDs, and veterans in the field describe their jobs and what is involved at a lot of their dig sites both on land or underwater all over the country. It was a learning experience all around as I learned science aspects from the archaeologists and film/video techniques from David and got used to expedition style filming and editing. Aka film, download to computer, film, dive, download... and all at the same time edit, film, edit, edit, edit. Repeat! Producing on the go is a ton of fun but definitely tiring as you work in a lab in the middle of all of the science action on a rocking ship. One of my jobs was to write the scripts for the video logs, so that helped force me to completely understand what was going on every step of the way so we could relay it to a broad audience watching the video logs on the NOAA site.

As evidenced by the video logs, the trip was unfortunately plagued by bad weather, but this did not bring down the morale of the crew and scientists, who used their experience and expertise to work through seemingly unworkable circumstances. I have realized that this is a common theme among scientists, biologists and archaeologists alike, and it reminded me of being out at sea exactly one year before as a biologist on the Holiday Chouest research cruise to investigate the effects of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Fortunately this time we were not on 6 hour shifts, so sleep deprivation was not as much of an issue. It was also different being on the team documenting the science rather than performing the science. While I felt I had a better understanding of what was going on by the end of the trip, I didn't feel quite as at home with the archaeology as I ever will around my fish :) Nevertheless, it broadened my horizons and kept me close to learning and science, while also being underwater and taking pictures. It doesn't get much better than that... I'm definitely looking forward to more trips like this in the future.