Already a subscriber? Sign in here
Read this article now for free!
Enter your email below to read the full article, and to receive our weekly newsletter with a round-up of The Past's top stories.
Or, subscribe for unlimited access
Discoveries from the deep: sailing aboard the Swan in the 17th century
In 1653, a small Cromwellian warship was lost off the west coast of Scotland. Excavated between 1992 and 2003, the wreck of the Swan yielded finds that tell stories of cutting-edge weaponry, mishaps on board, and plunder. Now the full report has been published, Colin Martin reveals the ship’s secrets and explains why wrecks are such a valuable archaeological resource.
Buried beneath the waves around the British Isles are many lost vessels, each with a number of characteristics that make them archaeologically special. First, a shipwreck provides a watertight (forgive the pun) context. Everything in it was associated with a self-contained, functioning entity at the moment of loss and deposition. Sometimes the identity and background of a wreck will be known from historical sources; otherwise dating will depend on typological studies (of coins, pottery, clay pipes, and so on). However obtained, once a date is established for the site as a whole, contextual association will extend that date to everything it contains. The value of this for checking and refinin
-- or --
Or, subscribe for unlimited access
Or, subscribe for unlimited access
Latest from Current Archaeology
