Scope

For more than 25 years, the Department of Anthropology and the Academic Diving Program at Florida State University have offered coursework in maritime archaeology. Faculty, staff and students of Florida State University have conducted archaeological fieldwork since the early 1950s, longer than any other academic institution that we know of.

Florida's rich prehistoric and maritime past is within close reach of the Department, offering a wide range of submerged cultural resources for research opportunities. Previous FSU excavations of prehistoric sites now submerged on the continental shelf have contributed to a better understanding of the peopling of the New World at the end of the last ice age, and Florida's shores hold over 2,000 shipwreck sites. The adjacent Gulf of Mexico and circum-Caribbean area offer a wide range of shipwreck sites with potential to provide information on the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the expansion of European colonial powers into the New World in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the development of a world-wide economy and global sea power in the 18th and 19th centuries, among other issues. FSU faculty and student research also includes maritime archaeology in the Mediterranean, Europe, the Black Sea and the Red Sea and western Indian Ocean.

Research in maritime archaeology is supported by the FSU Academic Diving Program, one of the premier scientific diving organizations in America, with an inventory of over one million dollars worth of diving equipment. The FSU Marine Laboratory provides facilities and research vessels on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Neighboring institutions such as the National Park Service's Southeastern Archaeological Center and the State of Florida's Bureau of Archaeological Research have collaborated with students to provide research and employment opportunities for students.