HIST 6830
Maritime Cultural Landscapes:
Focusing on False Bay, South Africa
Summer Study Abroad Program
Summer Session I
15 May –19 June 2017
Dr. Lynn Harris
Program in Maritime Studies
History Department
East Carolina University
Instructor: Dr. Lynn B. Harris
Office: Eller House 201 / Office Phone: 252-328-1967Office Hours: / Cell Phone: 252- 252- 558-8395
M,W& F: 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. / Email:
Other times by appointment
Course Description
Maritime Cultural Landscapes provides graduate students with the latest theoretical and methodological approaches in the discipline. Whereas traditional maritime archaeology focused largely on shipwrecks, the maritime cultural landscape approach examines the totality of maritime life both aboard ship and ashore. It is one of the fastest growing areas of maritime archaeology today and promises to be an important part of the field for the foreseeable future. This course is designed to provide students with a solid background in cultural landscape and landscape archaeology theory and to teach them how to analyze landscapes and use these analyses to make interpretations about maritime life in its wider cultural context.
The Program in Maritime Studies has a reputation for producing outstanding MA graduates. Many of our graduates now hold positions in government organizations and cultural resource management firms. These types of jobs require workers who are up to date on the latest fieldwork approaches. In the years to come, maritime archaeologists will be increasingly required to conduct fieldwork that examines maritime-oriented sites on land as well as those under water. This course will provide students the theoretical background and practical skills needed, and help ECU maintain its leadership in producing the best qualified maritime archaeologists.
This course will focus on the maritime landscape of the False Bay area including Simons Town naval history, the Kalk Bay fishing community, in addition to a lighthouse and assorted shipwrecks in the Cape Point Nature Preserve.
Course Requirements:
Paper on a selected site (10 pages)……………………………...…….…………….20%
Classroom discussion and group reports…………………………………………....20%
Daily academic journal entries on sites visited………….………..….….……...…....20%
Paper and Journal Article on maritime landscape (10 pages).………………...……...40%
Responsibilities of Students:
Attend all classes held before departure for Africa.
- Complete all assigned group reports or projects.
- Attend all events and sites listed on the trip itinerary.
- Submit 10-page essays by last pre-departure class.
- Submit a daily academic journal on June 18.
- Submit 10-page paper/article on or before June 18.
Schedule of Classroom Meetings:
Pre-Class Communications: Various emails and announcements to students via email distribution list and web site: (6:00-9:00 p.m.)
dates and locations.
Pre-Departure ClassesDate 22 May -1 June Location Eller House
On-site Orientation Date 4 June Location TBA
Pre-Departure InstructionDate 16 June Location TBA
Students should be able to:
1. Explain the history, theory, and techniques of landscape reconstruction;
2.Critique and discuss pertinent case studies of landscape reconstruction in archaeology utilized as class readings
3.Analyze and reconstruct the False Bay historical landscapes; interpret site formation processes and identify areas of future investigation.
Maritime Landscapes
Selected Bibliography
Maritime cultural landscapes are collections of submerged archaeological sites, or combinations of terrestrial and submerged sites that reflect the relationship between humans and the water. These landscapes can range in size from a single beach to an entire coastline and can include areas of terrestrial sites now inundated as well as underwater sites that are now desiccated. What binds all of these sites together is the premise that each aspect of the landscape –cultural, political, environmental, technological, and physical – is interrelated and cannot be understood without reference to the others. In this maritime cultural landscape approach, individual sites are treated as features within the larger landscape and the interpretation of single sites add to a larger analysis of a region or culture. This approach provides physical and theoretical links between terrestrial and underwater archaeology as well as prehistoric and historic archaeology; consequently, providing a framework for integrating such diverse topics as trade, resource procurement, habitation, industrial production, and warfare into a holistic study of the past. It is an ideal framework for a connective study of False Bay maritime communitiesranging from fishermen in Kalk Bay to the seamen and women in Simons Town, and Cape Point (now a nature reserve) as a graveyard for ships of all nationalities that voyaged around the tip of Africa.
Avery, G.
1975 Discussion on the age and use of tidal fish-traps (visvywers). The South African Archaeological Bulletin, 30 (119/120), 105-113.
Bekker, A. E.
1990 History of False Bay up to 1795. Simon's Town Historical Society, Simon's Town and Johannesburg
Catsambis, Alex., Ford, Ben and Hamilton, Donny (eds.)
2011The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Conlin, David and Matthew Russell
2006Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield: H.L. Hunley and USS Housatonic, IJNA 35.1: 20-40.
Conolly, J., and M. Lake
2006 Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Delgado, James
2011Ships on Land, in Alex Catsambis, Ben Ford and Donny Hamilton, The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology, p. 182-201,Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ford, Ben (ed.)
2011The Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes. Springer Press: New York.
Hart, Tim, and St James
2009 "Archaeological Impact Assessment of the Site Known As Light House Site, Kommetjie."
Hockey, P. A. R., & Branch, G. M.
1997 Criteria, objectives and methodology for evaluating marine protected areas in South Africa. South African Journal of Marine Science, 18(1), 369-383.
Johnson, M.
2006Ideas of Landscape: An Introduction. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Kirkaldy, Alan.
1996 " The Sea is in Our Blood": Community and Craft in Kalk Bay, C. 1880-1939. Vol. 59. Government Printer.
McCarthy, Michael
2004 HM Ship Roebuck (1690-1701): Global Maritime Heritage? IJNA 33.3: 54-66.
Millar, Thomas Bruce.
1969 "The Indian and Pacific Oceans: some strategic considerations." Adelphi Papers 9.57: 1-20.
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Poggenpoel, C., & Halkett, D.
1990Archaeological survey of the coast and near coastal areas of the Cape Point Nature Reserve. Unpublished report prepared for OVP Associates. UCT: Archaeology Contracts Office, University of Cape Town.
Potgieter, T. D.
2000 "Maritime defence and the South African Navy to the cancellation of the Simon's Town agreement." Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies 30.2 : 159-182.
Quinlan, Tim.
1980 Line Fishing in Kalk Bay: An Account of a Marginal Livelihood in a Developing Industrial Environment. Diss. University of Cape TownRippon, S.
Richards, Nathan
2011Ship Abandonment by Nathan Richards in Alex Catsambis, Ben Ford and Donny Hamilton, The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology, p. 856-878,Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Robson, William, and Jayson Orton.
2009 "Archaeological impact assessment of a ruined structure on Rem erf 329, Noordhoek, Simonstown Magisterial District, Western Cape."
Saitowitz, S. J., R. O. Heckroodt, and Ethleen Lastovica
1985 "The Cape Glass Company, Glencairn: archaeology of an historical site." The South African Archaeological Bulletin: 88-93."
Schreuders, Thecla.
1987 The Coloured Community at Simon's Town: A Study in Class, Community and Politics. Diss. University of Cape Town.
Shepherd, Nicholas James.
1989 Reading the Past: Archaeology at the Residency, Simon's Town. Diss. University of Cape Town.
Stapylton-Adkins, Dawn.
2005 Soldiers, shoemakers and Simons Town: the story of the Brewitt family. D. Stapylton-Adkins.
Whisson, Michael G., and Raphael M. Kaplinsky.
1969 Suspended sentence: a study of Kalk Bay fishermen. South African Institute of Race Relations.