Abstract
Stranded ships on beaches—vessels and timbers left to the effects of time and change—are the remnants of a long and varied history of maritime activities on coastlines worldwide. The archaeological remains of ships in the beach zone are part of a complex system, being periodically exposed and reburied, they vary between being both visible and frequently forgotten features of the coastal landscape. These limited and nonrenewable resources play an important informational role as tangible pieces of maritime heritage that also document dynamic coastal processes, but the characteristics that make them valuable also render them highly vulnerable to physical and cultural forces. Beached wrecks on the Namibian coast have become part of a dynamic environmental and social system. They serve as icons for a unique historical and environmental context against a backdrop of desolate, desert landscape. In this they provide interesting cases for archaeological and cultural heritage management on multiple levels, providing the opportunity to examine the line between preservation and access, sustainable archaeological tourism, and archaeological indicators for dynamic environmental change.
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Jones, J.J. (2017). On Desolate Sands: Beached Shipwrecks in the Namibian Coastal Landscape. In: Harris, L. (eds) Sea Ports and Sea Power. SpringerBriefs in Archaeology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46985-0_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46985-0_8
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