And often enough, this evidence can be used to rewrite history. The marine archaeologist uses the condition of the wreck as well as the debris preserved-weapons, navigation aids, scraps of textile, human bones-to gain a clearer idea of what really happened at what onshore archaeologists call the moment of deposition. It’s an image used repeatedly by James P. Sealed off by mud and silt or boxed in by saturated old timbers, something like a “time capsule” may await the researcher. But maritime archaeology-the identification, excavation, and in some cases raising of seabed wrecks-can be less of a transgression in that sense. Surrounding layers may be judged irrelevant and be scattered on the trash heap artifacts are plucked out of significant spots that may be recorded but then destroyed. In seeking to understand some episode of the past, it changes the evidence left by that episode irretrievably.
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