This first issue of 2015 signifies an important milestone for the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, as it now enters its tenth year of publication. Since the appearance of the journal’s first issue in January 2006, much has been accomplished in a relatively short period of time.

It was immediately apparent from the themes of the articles selected for publication that JMA was filling a much-needed gap in the field of maritime archaeological research and scholarship—one of the primary intentions for the journal’s establishment, as addressed in the first issue’s editorial (Adams 2006; Adams, this volume). Four years later, changes were necessary to accommodate the growth in submissions that JMA had experienced in this formative period (Adams 2009). The founding editor, Jon Adams (University of Southampton), was the sole captain during this early period; to facilitate the journal’s expanding reach and increasing content, additional editors were brought on board. In 2009, Helen Farr (University of Southampton) joined the journal as reviews editor. In 2010, Annalies Corbin (PAST Foundation) and Athena Trakadas (then at the Viking Ship Museum, Denmark, now at the University of Southern Denmark) joined Jon Adams as co-editors. To help manage this transition, Sheli Smith (PAST Foundation) served as interim co-editor until the end of 2011. Concurrent to the expansion of the editorial staff, JMA adopted a new on-line submission and review portal, Editorial Manager, developed by the journal’s publisher, Springer LLC. As we near the end of such a productive decade, this first issue of Volume 10 signifies additional changes regarding JMA’s editorship: Annalies Corbin, Athena Trakadas and Helen Farr continue their responsibilities at the helm as Jon Adams steps down to focus on his own research.

Over the course of JMA’s history, the Editorial Board of the journal has shifted on a more regular basis, thus mirroring the changing trends within the field of maritime archaeology and associated disciplines. In this respect, the board has and continues to include representatives that broadly reflect the description and aims of the journal, thematically and methodologically. At the same time, we strive to allow for a wider geographical reach of scholars, especially as the practice is rapidly evolving in new regions around the globe. With this issue, we welcome Margaret E. Leshikar-Denton, Arturo Rey da Silva, and Matthew A. Russell to the board; in the past few years we have also welcomed Dionisius Agius, Giulia Boetto, Nathan Richards, and Jonathan Sharfman. They join a steadfast crew of board members that include Lucy Blue, Richard Bradley, Justin Dix, Jerzy Gawronski, Matthew H. Johnson, Emad Khalil, Thijs Maarleveld, Seán McGrail, David Mindell, and Fraser Sturt. We are indebted to a wealth of previous board members: Carl Olof Cederlund, Tim Champion, P. J. Cherian, Kevin Crisman, Christopher Dobbs, Jorge Herrera, Larry Murphy, Aidan O’Sullivan, Johan Rönnby, Mark Staniforth, David Tomalin, and Robert Van de Noort, all of whom provided invaluable advice and direction while the journal grew in its infancy.

Another element of change to mark a decade of JMA is increased publication: starting in 2015 the journal will publish three issues a year. This increase is in response first to accommodate the number of high-quality papers that are being submitted for consideration, and second to accommodate requests for more special thematic issues, detailed below.

Gazing Back at Our Wake…

Since 2006, the journal has published nine volumes comprised of 18 issues. Together, almost 100 articles have been published along with numerous editorials, comments, open letters, and 16 book reviews. Geographically these articles represent material from Northern Europe (the U.K., Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, and France), southern Europe (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and the island of Cyprus), Africa (Egypt, Namibia, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, and Sudan), the Americas and Caribbean (U.S.A., Jamaica, Mexico, and Uruguay) as well as the Indian Ocean (Sri Lanka) and parts of the broader Pacific (Australia, Korea, Antarctic region, Micronesia, and Western Oceania).

Thematically, the papers have an extensive reach that even exceed the initial intentions of the journal. In this respect, a comprehensive overview of these themes is warranted here: approaches and applications in Maritime Cultural Landscape studies; analyses of coastal colonization and landscapes and their dureés; coastal societies and their contact zones; coastal and lacustrine architecture including fish weirs, traps and settlement sites; marine sustenance strategies; social archaeology of ports, harbours and anchorages; maritime trade; navigation; social action of seafaring; social meaning of boats; lived space and rhythms in the maritime zone; actor networks; modelling of weather patterns and submerged landscapes; deep water archaeology and site formation processes; survey and recording methodologies that include digital mapping, photogrammetry, 3-D modelling and fishermen interviews; determining vessels’ sailing performance and load capabilities; vernacular shipbuilding and indigenous craft; oral histories and interpretation/symbolism; the archaeology of piracy and smuggling; ship and marine iconography; the archaeology of piers and shipyards; human impact studies in harbours and the deep sea; reviews of Keith Muckleroy’s contribution to the field; debates regarding treasure hunting; underwater cultural heritage (UCH) management strategies and training methods; maritime archaeology training at the university level; UCH dissemination to and education of the general public; maritime archaeology in developing regions; the 2001 UNESCO Convention and its application/implementation.

Within these themes, the physical layout extends from terrestrial sites, coastal zones, inland lakes, rivers, and the deep ocean. Ship architecture ranges from steamboats, dugout canoes, rafts, VOC ships, sloops, galleys, galleons to Viking ships, to name but a few. The chronological foci of these papers extend from the Holocene to the present.

Four special issues have also been published. The first, “Education and Training in Maritime Archaeology,” appeared as Volume 3, Issue 2, in December 2008. The guest editor was Jesse Ransley (University of Southampton) and the volume includes 11 articles that stemmed originally from a conference session in March 2008 that addressed ‘Education and Training: What ‘Maritime Archaeology’ are we teaching?’ held at the Institute for Field Archaeologists Annual Conference, Swansea University, U.K. The papers aim to start a discourse regarding the practice and focus of maritime archaeological education, and include specific case-studies deriving from examples in Denmark, Egypt, England, Australia, and the U.S.A. The second, “Navigating Contentious Waters: International Responses to the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage,” appeared as Volume 5, Issue 2, in December 2010. The guest editors were Matthew Russell (then at the University of California, Berkeley), Amanda Evans (Tesla Offshore) and Margaret Leshikar-Denton (then at Ships of Discovery) and the volume includes nine articles that originated in sessions at the Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology in January 2007 in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the Sixth World Archaeological Congress in July 2008 in Dublin, Ireland. As the Convention has just gone into effect in 2009, this volume reflects upon a new phase in collaborative activities amongst stakeholders in UCH, with case-studies of the U.K., the U.S.A., Ireland, Holland, Portugal, and Mexico. The third, “Maritime Archaeology and Mitigation in Africa: Endangered Resources, Policies, and Practice,” appeared as Volume 7, Issue 1, in October 2012. The volume was edited by Athena Trakadas and includes eight articles from countries from the continent with focus on particular case-studies in maritime archaeological mitigation. The idea for the special issue originated at ‘The International Seminar on Maritime Cultural Heritage: Preservation, Presentation and Education’ at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, in April 2010, and was to form a session at the 13th Congress of the Panafrican Archaeological Association for Prehistory and Related Studies (PANAF/PAA) and 20th Meeting of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) held in Dakar, Senegal, in November 2010; unfortunately the session was cancelled but the intended papers were published here. The fourth, “The Social Archaeology of Ports and Harbours,” appeared as Volume 8, Issue 2, in December 2013. Adam Rogers (University of Leicester) served as guest editor and the volume includes eight articles that explore social aspects in port and harbour studies with interpretative themes that include architectural analyse, human behaviour, action and experience, and artefact analysis.

Charting a Course…

As can be seen from this brief review, JMA has published a wide range of articles. Theory is well represented, and we attract papers from a wide variety of related disciplines—a reflection of the fact that the field of maritime archaeology, as Jon Adams stated in his first editorial of the journal, is certainly not static and is “becoming more fully integrated into professional, educational and management structures at international and local scales” (Adams 2006: 1). As the journal’s statistics show, there has been a steady increase in the downloading of articles over the last several years, and this indicates not only the interest of specialists but the broader field of archaeology as a whole, if not beyond.

But these past nine volumes also provide a clear indication of where we would like to see the journal voyage in the future. Following along the established themes listed above as well as advocating for more papers addressing methodology, ethics, dissemination strategies, the management of UCH, and the conservation of sites, we intend to actively broaden the journal’s submissions. In addition, the practice of maritime archaeology is not yet well represented through an even geographic distribution, if that is even possible. Although being mindful that it is still a nascent area of research in some regions, we hope to see the appearance of more articles on projects, issues, and debates in Central and South America and especially the Asia/Pacific region. More special issues are planned—the culmination of conference sessions and proposed topics with thematic or geographical foci. In this sense, we want to hold aloft one of JMA’s original purposes: to facilitate the publication of high-quality and diverse maritime archaeological and related research that has not yet found a home port.

With this issue, readers will notice a slightly altered ‘Aims and Scope’:

Journal of Maritime Archaeology is the first international journal to address all aspects of maritime archaeology, both terrestrial and under water. It encompasses theory, practice and analysis relating to sites, technology, landscape, structure, and issues of heritage management.

Journal of Maritime Archaeology provides a conduit for maritime approaches reaching across archaeology and related disciplines such as cultural geography, history, ethnography, oceanography and anthropology. In so doing the journal addresses all aspects of the human past relating to maritime environments.

In this new ‘Aims and Scope’, analysis and technology are included as key elements in maritime archaeological research, and the chronological reach is made as broad as possible. As we mark the milestone of a new decade, we hope that in this way the journal has also reacted to the changes in the field of maritime archaeology, and adjusted its course according.