Excavation versus sustainability in situ: a conclusion on 25 years of archaeological investigations at Goose Rock, a designated historic wreck-site at the Needles, Isle of Wight, England

Assurance , a British warship of 44 guns, was lost on the Needles of Wight, UK, in 1753. Pomone , a British 5th rate 38-gun frigate of the Leda class, followed in 1811. Designated a'protected wreck' in 1975 this multi-period site was investigated under a UK Government licence. Despite her total disintegration, Pomone left artefact scatters attesting to her size, character, resting position and evidence of her cabin plan. This archaeological evidence is compared with two surviving sister ships, and the presumption of incomprehensible 'scrambling' on Muckelroy Class 5 wreck sites is robustly challenged. The licencee reviews the organization and methodology of 25 years of licenced activity on this site and concludes that the UK policy of promoting invasive investigation of historic shipwrecks cannot be readily reconciled with the principles of sustainability which are now embodied in European Agenda 21.     

Beached swords from Marano Lagoon (northern Adriatic) reveal ancient land–sea connections and recent coastal evolution

Depositional and erosional processes, subsidence and sea-level changes have strongly modified the coastal landscape of northern Adriatic lagoons. Such rapid transformations have induced significant consequences on human settlements and, thus, on the archaeological visibility of the area, still largely unexplored. We present here six metal swords fortuitously retrieved by fishermen over the last decades in front of the barrier islands of Marano Lagoon (north-eastern Italy). Multi-analytical analyses carried out on the artefacts (X-ray radiography and computed micro-tomography, radiocarbon dating and typo-chronology) combined with the study of the coastal paleo-environment (mainly based on historical cartography and remote sensing) allowed the items’ main features to be defined, and highlighted both the historical importance of the area and the significant morphological changes that have occurred there over the last millennium. Data presented indicate that Marano Lagoon was a major hub in the northern Adriatic in the Late Middle Ages, during the crucial period of the Crusades, and in Early Modern times, connecting inland Europe with the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, the research highlights the onset of coastal erosion that occurred in the last century after a phase of relatively geomorphic stability, possibly deriving from the intensification of human impact and climate change.