Shipwreck in a swamp: the Burroughs site at Edenton, N. Carolina, USA

This preliminary site analysis of a suspected 18th-century shipwreck located in Edenton, North Carolina, USA, helps call to question the roll of abandonment in the examination of ships as artefacts. Abandonments often provide an easily accessed and inexpensive means of fleshing out knowledge of ship construction in the past. Abandonments are typically located near historically well-used commercial ports and harbours and may now be hidden by shallow water, marshland or land fill. These areas, in many instances, are inaccessible to normal remote sensing survey techniques.