The Composite Seabed: Maritime Archaeology, Shipwrecks, and the Anthropocene Ocean

Conventional approaches to the study of the ocean separate anthropogenic and environmental features into datasets and areas of focus with their own specialist disciplines. Studied in isolation, those records cannot show the relational assemblage in which underwater heritage acts on its surroundings and is acted on in turn. This paper explores the four UK National Monuments Records alongside data from the UK Hydrographic Office, marine area utilisation data, and archaeological grey literature produced for offshore development. The resulting overview shows that anthropogenic material on the seabed is ubiquitous, with shipwreck or shipwreck-like features appearing at intervals of tens of metres in well-surveyed areas. Even in one of the world’s most intensively surveyed marine areas, the UK, the record reflects where survey has happened. Most of the material in heritage records is undesignated and only addressed through the consenting process. Leaving sites in situ to be the subject of unobserved transformation results in a knowledge gain forgone. The paper proposes a new way to think about these sites, as components of a single composite seabed, with complementary changes to the consenting process under existing policy and legislation: assessing the assemblage around a development and returning survey finds to the national record.