Underwater Archaeology at Port Royal, Jamaica

1. Underwater Archaeology at Port Royal, Jamaica ATAMU/INA PROJECT

2. QUESTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED • 1. How was the site found? • 2. How was the site excavated? • 3. What was found? • 4. How were questions answered? • ---- Keeping in mind that any excavation of an underwater site is going to be more complicated than expected, more expensive than expected, and the analysis will go on much longer than expected and require the assistance of a number of different specialists!

3. Catastrophic Sites Archaeological sites that are created in a matter of minutes preserving in situ a wide array of artifactual material. Get quote.

4. Port Royal, JAMAICA Largest English town in the New World when it sank in an earthquake on June 7, 1692. The only submerged town in the New World

6. Located at the tip of a 18 mile long sand spit makes for a precarious location subject to the whims of nature. The Institute of Nautical Archaeology spent 10 years excavating on the 17th-century, submerged remains of Port Royal. More than 150 students worked on the site.

7. Some sites such as the sunken town of Port Royal are so well-known they are never lost. There is an abundance of historic documents and maps. Taylor’s 1688 map of Port Royal.

8. Of course the significant thing about Port Royal, is that much of it sunk into Kingston Harbor during an earthquake on June 7, 1692, ca. 11:40 A.M.

9. In Historical Archaeology the documents and even the frozen hands of a recovered watches reveal details on everyday life in Port Royal in the late 17th Century.

10. Broadside published in London in August 1692

11. Map of Port Royal, 1807

12. Assumption was that liquifaction sunk the town with little horizontal displacement

13. Land Support -- Living Quarters, Work Headquarters

14. Aerial View 0f Port Royal ca. 1960

15. Barge anchored over excavation

16. Barge Activity

17. The shallow diving is conducted from a support barge and is done during 3 hour or longer dives using HOOKA.

18. Land view of dredges used to excavate.

19. In shallow water, all excavations are done with a water dredge that control the direction of the exhaust across the bottom through a hose

20. Air Lifts such as used in earlier excavations are not effective in shallow water for they dump the sediments on top of your head, destroying all visibility

21. Port Royal- Sunken City, Brick Buildings, Shallow Diving, HOOKA, Poor Visibility, Water Dredge

22. 2 divers working in two 10 ft squares inside Building 5

23. All Catastrophic sites are characterized by the great abundance of well-preserved artifacts - pipes, pewter, porcelain, bottles!

24. Array of Artifacts on floor being excavated

25. Building 1 -- built in two stages -- housing a Cobbler, a Tavern and a Pipe/Wine Shop

27. Artifact Distribution in Building 1

28. Building 1, Architectural Details

29. Each excavated building becomes a chapter in the story of the daily life of the town

30. Building 1

32. Following are sequential stages in the excavation of Room 1in Building 5

33. Sequential Excavation Stages

34. Earthenware Pot in fallen doorway 21 pewter plates in stairwell

35. Cistern, Privy and Walls

36. Pots, pewter plate, coconut & Wicker Fish Basket

37. Mapping in Poor Visibility Errors always creep in and accumulate, but modern science has provided instrumentations that allow us to overcome some of the difficulties.

38. The difficulties of plotting the building and artifacts were facilitated by SHARPS - Sonic High Accuracy Ranging and Positioning System.

39. 3-D computer generated drawing

40. The excavations of Building 4/5 revealed a first -- a building rammed by a ship during the earthquake!Built in two stages. Bldg. 4 was tacked on to it.Note the pattern of hearths and sharing of cisterns.

41. Drawing of 1666 London -- Interpretations

42. Hogarth Lithograph

43. The excavations of 8 buildings allow us to reconstruct the alignment of houses along the intersection of Lime and Queen Street

44. Street View of Excavated Houses

45. Land Excavations at Port Royal New Street Excavations Lime Street Excavations St. Paul’s Church

46. New Street Excavations

47. Water Pipe Trench cut down housing block on landward end of Lime Street

48. Intersecting House Walls