Maritime mass meetings: November conferences

This weekend has been a hectic one for the SAMPHIRE team. We have been at two conferences at opposite ends of the country, spreading the word about SAMPHIRE and encouraging members of local communities, amateur marine archaeologists and recreational divers to get involved in the stewardship of Scotland’s marine heritage.

Andrew Roberts and Peta Knott manning the WA Coastal & Marine stall and sharing some of the results of the SAMPHIRE project

Andrew Roberts from the SAMPHIRE team attended the Nautical Archaeology Society Annual Conference at the Museum of London this weekend to promote Project SAMPHIRE.  The conference was an interesting mixture of professional and avocational archaeologists and illustrated the valuable contribution that the public makes to archaeological projects. Several exciting projects were presented by colelagues in other organisations and other avocational groups including the Embo Zulu wreck study in Scotland by SCHARP and  NoSAS. This project was conducted with cooperation between local community members and professional archaeologists. There was also a fantastic talk by Dr Colin Martin, looking back at all of the amazing maritime archaeology he has undertaken in his career, much of it in Scotland, and how archiving work is being undertaken to preserve these discoveries and make them accessible to the Scottish public. The conference was a great venue to promote Project SAMPHIRE, engage with archaeologists and enthusiasts, and learn more about ongoing collaborations between communities and archaeologists.

 

The poster for the Scottish Dive Conference talk, created by Stirling Sub-Aqua Club who organised the event.

On the same day, John McCarthy attended the annual Scottish Dive Conference. He gave an hour long talk on the project to a room packed with Scottish divers with around 50 people in attendance and standing room only. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the project and many flyers and site reporting sheets were taken at the end of the talk. There were also lots of other great talk, including a fantastic presentation by well-known Scottish diver and wreck research Rod McDonald.

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