Ask an Archaeologist - Dr James Hunter Ask an Archaeologist - Dr James Hunter  

Maritime archaeology is a sub-discipline of archaeology that studies past human interaction with seas, lakes, and rivers through material culture.

I was inspired to get into archaeology quite by accident.

I went to university as a journalism student, ended up not really liking that program, was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and I started taking anthropology courses. And through doing that, I ended up volunteering in the archaeology lab as part of that anthropology study.

I really just enjoyed working with artefacts, I thought it was a really cool thing. They were quite fascinating to me, and that, over time, evolved into working on land archaeological sites and eventually working underwater.

When I was at university as an undergraduate, I started taking anthropology courses. I was interested in cultural anthropology and archaeology as a sub-discipline of anthropology. So that was really what I think got the whole thing going.

Through that, I started taking archaeology courses as an undergrad, and then eventually, I worked as an archaeologist for a couple of years doing mostly consulting work, and then decided to go get my master's degree.

That's when I made the transition over to maritime and doing underwater work and then I came to Australia. The whole reason I came to this country was to get a PhD. I was going to get my PhD and go back to the US, but I fell in love with Australia, and the archaeology here was pretty incredible.

I've been pretty lucky and I've had a really good career.

I've worked on some really amazing shipwreck sites primarily, but I think probably one of the bigger career highlights I've had is right out of grad school I worked on the American Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley.

That was the first successful combat submarine in the world. It was raised intact from the seafloor in 2000 and was brought to a lab in Charleston, South Carolina. I was part of the team that investigated the submarine.

We excavated it. We found the entire crew, all of their clothing, all their personal belongings, everything related to the submarine and we learned a lot about the submarine that we didn't know because it was never very well historically documented.

We learned various aspects of how it was designed, how it operated. We also started using fairly cutting-edge technology that's become quite commonplace in archaeology now, like laser scanning and structured light scanning. So yeah, that was a big one for me, good fun.

In terms of surprises, yeah, I think it's the level of preservation that you find on maritime sites.

Hunley is a great example of that. What comes to mind are the human remains associated with each of the eight crewmen. We had instances where we found cartilage buried in the silt. We found sternums for some of the guys, we found thyroid cartilage, we found hair.

And in another instance, we located a concretion, so basically a knob of corroded iron, but when that was x-rayed and when the conservators got to it and removed it, they found a burnt matchstick in there. So one of the guys that lit his pipe probably or lit the lantern inside the submarine and just chucked this match on the bottom of the sub, and it had become completely concreted and encased. And there it was. It looked like he'd thrown it away yesterday after the conservators had done their work.

I've definitely had some challenges on various projects I've worked on, but I would have to say the most challenging would have been working on the HM Bark Endeavour shipwreck site in Rhode Island in January of 2020.

January, of course, in the Northern Hemisphere is the dead of winter and the water was, I can't even call it cold, it was beyond that, it was polar. I think I looked at my dive computer at one point on the first dive and it said it was 2 degrees Celsius. It was excruciatingly cold.

We were in dry suits, we prepared for this. We had the right equipment, but we didn't have sealed hoods covering our heads and we just had regular gloves that weren't connected to the drysuit either. So when I jumped in the water and started the descent on my first dive, it felt... I had an instant ice cream headache. That's probably the best way I can put it, just an excruciating instant headache.

And I was just kind of on the seabed, sort of knocking my head around a bit, trying to get over the pain. I found that with those temperatures, we were doing 40 - 60 minutes a dive and by that point, your cognitive function is starting to decline a bit. You're really cold so you're kind of thinking a bit fuzzy.

And I had to use my hands. I had to draw and I had to use a camera, so I needed gloves that were thinner so I could actually push buttons and draw. And I found by the end of dives of that duration, I could barely use my hands anymore.

 The most physically challenging? I would say that project was the one.

Over the course of my career, which is almost 30 years, I have worked for the federal government in two countries, the United States and Australia. I've also worked for universities, I've worked in consulting, and I've worked for state government.

And I think the jobs vary depending on what you're doing. So for example, if you're working in a government role, we did a lot of oversight, so we're doing things like permitting, site management, site inventory, that sort of thing.

University roles tend to be more research focused. That was a lot of fun too, because I got to interact with students a bit and do some teaching, which I really quite enjoyed.

And then, of course, here at the museum, it's been a nice mix of a lot of different things, predominantly research, but also throwing in collections management, acquisition of new material to the collections. Also, doing exhibitions and interpretation, which has been a whole heap of fun.

For those who want to start a career in archaeology, I would say start with the basics.

So make sure you take some anthropology courses. I think that having that good foundation in anthropological method and theory is really useful when you sort of navigate your way into archaeology.

The other thing is try to find one or more areas of specialisation, something you're really good at, whether it's doing photogrammetry, photography, videography, site planning, artefact analysis, anything like that sets you apart and makes you particularly unique and valuable. That's a really good thing to have because ultimately that will also make you very marketable if you're looking for a job.

I think archaeology matters because it's a very compelling  and evocative way for people to be interested in the past. And I think knowing about the past actually can inform where we are now and where we're going.

So if there's any way that can really kind of get people's attention and get people interested in the past so they can learn from the past to kind of help us along and navigate our life now and going forward, I think that's great.

And for me personally, I mean, hey... diving for a living. That's always fun!