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Item Open Access Five Days in June: The Archaeological and Historical Legacy of Saipan's Open Ocean Seadrome(East Carolina University, May 2025) Anthony, Geoff MatthewSaipan’s open ocean seadrome was an unconventional and expedient solution to an emergent operational challenge. Operation FORAGER, the invasion of the Northern Marianas, was unexpectedly contested by the Japanese First Mobile Fleet. The United States Fifth Fleet immediately implemented an expedient non-traditional seadrome in the open ocean for emergent long-range searches. It accepted and managed significant operational risk by establishing and operating this atypical seadrome outside a sheltered anchorage — and in harm’s way — to support vital PBM-3D Mariner seaplane night Radio Direction and Ranging search operations. Previous archaeological efforts have yielded a commanding knowledge of the traditional seadrome in Saipan’s Tanapag Harbor. Surveys of the captured Japanese seaplane base with existing infrastructure have contributed markedly to the archaeological record. A more thorough effort devoted explicitly to the innovative, high-risk, high-reward implementation of the initial open ocean seadrome and its contribution to the archaeological record has yet to be undertaken. This open ocean seadrome, established in the opening days of the battle, provided the initial long-range search crucially required for the security of the United States Fifth Fleet. Assessing the impact these patrol planes had on the conduct and outcome of the battle informs an underreported, yet critical, aspect of the Battle of the Philippine Sea. This facility also served as an essential proof of concept that demonstrated the temporary viability of an open ocean seadrome. Lessons from this evolution heavily informed future Pacific seadromes and seaplane tender support requirements. Although the exact location of this seadrome remains speculative, archival resources provide the level of geographic fidelity needed to conduct an appropriate archaeological site survey. A PBM-3D maritime patrol seaplane accidentally sank at this anchorage, but without the catastrophic damage and dislocation generally associated with traditional aircraft crashes. Locating, surveying, and recording this aircraft in situ would theoretically provide consequential site formation and cultural and environmental impact data. Other associated archaeologically significant artifacts may also be present. These artifacts would further contribute to and validate the archaeological record and inform open ocean seadrome operational practices and seaplane tender support activities. The open ocean seadrome was established upon the Saipan Shelf, the invasion's primary amphibious force staging area. The potential for opportunistic incidental artifact discovery to inform the archaeological interpretation of the battle should also not be underestimated. This area is approximately 100 feet (31 meters) deep. Search efforts included traditional methods and sought to inform the viability and reliability of leveraging various detection technologies, such as Light Detection and Ranging, adapted for maritime archaeological surveys. Geographic Information Systems software and data were utilized to establish search areas and parameters based on historical records and to assist in mapping the locations of any cultural material associated with the open ocean seadrome. Experimentation with these technologies contributes to their continued development and integration into existing archaeological methods, improving their future effectiveness.Item Open Access Bent Machine Guns and Melted Engines: A Study of the Applicability of Aircraft Accident Investigation to the Archaeological Examination of Historic Submerged WWII Aircraft(East Carolina University, May 2025) Morrow, Alexander S.This thesis explores the applicability of aircraft accident investigation to understanding archaeological site formation processes of submerged World War II aircraft. Aircraft accident investigators are professionals who are called to accident scenes, military or civilian, to analyze the causes. Accident investigators attempt to recreate the circumstances of the aircraft accident by studying wreckage distribution, damage patterns on the wreckage, and the physics involved so that they may provide guidance for safer future air travel. Many of the field and laboratory techniques used by aircraft accident investigators, such as site mapping and wreckage identification, align closely with already established archaeological methodologies. This thesis considers a Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat shot down during the Battle for Saipan in June 1944 as a case study to test how aircraft accident investigation methods can be applied to archaeological research. The site was excavated over the course of three field seasons from 2019 to 2023 as part of a joint East Carolina University/Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency effort to locate and repatriate the remains of the pilot. This thesis conducts a parallel analysis of the site using both aircraft accident investigation and site formation process techniques. These analyses utilize a combination of historical research, geographic information system analysis, computer aided design software, and photogrammetric modeling to examine the aircraft wreck site and recreate the aircraft accident. Ultimately this research aims to reaffirm the value of interdisciplinary approaches to archaeology and proposes a number of field and analytical approaches for archaeologists studying aircraft to adopt in the future.Item Open Access IN PURSUIT OF A HUMBLE BEAST: A GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS FOR THE WHALING FISHERY ON SHACKLEFORD BANKS(East Carolina University, May 2025) Sandahl, WinstonThe purpose of this thesis is to investigate the spatial relationship between shore whaling activities on Shackleford Banks and the community that undertook them. From the colonial period to the decline of whaling activities at the beginning of the 20th century, North Carolina’s shores were an established hub for the whaling industry of the Atlantic Ocean. Although the Cape Lookout whaling ground did not amass the same offshore productive capacity as New Bedford or Nantucket, Cape Lookout whaling was nonetheless historically pertinent to the establishment of North Carolina’s economy and settlement. To date, relatively little scholarly research has been conducted into the spatial relationship between the shore whaling activities of Shackleford Banks and the communities that undertook it. By interpreting the results of a geospatial analysis and comparing it to historical sources, sites optimal for whaling activities on Shackleford Banks may come to light.Item Embargo The Resonance and Articulation of the Roman Moral Imagination in the Historical Thought of Sallust and Plutarch(East Carolina University, December 2024) Philips, James PatrickWithin the Roman historical imagination from Polybius forward a “lapsarian motif” emerges that embodies the fundamental concerns of the Roman moral tradition. Even as it is transposed to different keys and arranged differently in successive authors, the melody remains discernible. For these historians, including Polybius, Sallust, and Livy, the original Roman virtus had become corrupted through a succession of foreign wars, leading to a society morally enervated by a multitude of vices. In contrast to the interpretation of modern historians who attribute the crises of the late Roman Republic to economic and social factors, the ancient historians consistently attribute the problems to a crisis of morality. Drawing on the idea of the longue durée from the Annales school of history, this thesis examines the moral thought of the Roman historical tradition often dismissed by modern historiography. In the process, it argues for a continuity of moral concern in Roman historical thought from Cato the Censor onward, seeking to understand the evolution of the moral tradition expounded by historians of the late Republic, such as Sallust, and assess its continuity with the ethical and historical reflection of the Principate and High Empire periods through the writings of Plutarch.Item Open Access Exploring the Maritime Structure of Castle Island: A Historical and Archaeological Study of an Offshore Island Near Washington, North Carolina(East Carolina University, December 2024) Livingston, Olivia ReneeNorth Carolina’s long history is often overlooked in comparison to that of surrounding states, as the lands were not as fertile, nor were the cities as industrialized during colonial and postcolonial periods. Through the expansion and utilization of waterways, however, the state became a priority to local, regional, and international trade of lumber and naval stores. Harbors and ports served as a link to the economic prosperity of North Carolina’s maritime activities. With the formation of waterfronts and usage of wharves, eastern North Carolina became an asset to commercial services, and particularly the city of Washington played a vital role in the development of waterborne commerce. Settled on the Tar-Pamlico River, Washington became one of the largest mercantilist centers in the eastern region, trading not only nationally, but internationally as well. The early expansion of Washington’s maritime infrastructure, such as that established around Castle Island, remains an unexplored aspect. Integrating historical and archaeological findings, this thesis considers the role of Castle Island and its development from the eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century through an analysis of its wharf structure.Item Open Access Master at Sea: Navigation Aboard La Concorde/Queen Anne's Revenge(East Carolina University, May 2024) Baker, NicholasThe La Concorde/Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck has a diverse assemblage with research potential that offers valuable insight into life under the pirate Edward Thatch as well as its previous purpose for the transportation of slaves across the Atlantic. As new artifacts continue to be exposed through conservation efforts, the ship’s navigational instruments and possible surveying tools present an opportunity for a unique material culture study that reflects not only their origin and functionality in terms of broader 18th-century navigation methods for pirates, but also how French sailing crews aboard slave ships operated on extended voyages. Included in this collection are instruments such as lead sounding weights, writing slates, a sector, dividers, compass components, and equipment believed to be associated with coastal or terrestrial surveying. These instruments are conserved at the Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Laboratory before being curated and exhibited in the North Carolina Maritime Museum: Beaufort. Each of these instruments were evaluated to determine the navigational needs and training of the pirates who may have used them as well as the French sailors who operated the vessel before its capture by Edward Thatch.Item Open Access The Interconnection of Foodways: An Investigation of Artifacts and the Connections of Three Individual Groups Throughout the Life of La Concorde/ Queen Anne’s Revenge(East Carolina University, May 2024) Hoots, Michaela C.Artifacts recovered archaeologically from La Concorde/ Queen Anne’s Revenge (31CR314) represent three distinct social groups that lived, worked, and were enslaved aboard this vessel, the French La Concorde crew, enslaved Africans, and pirates. Each of these groups acquired, prepared, and ate their food in diverse ways, both on land and at sea. These relate to variables like culture, rank, and time period. This research will focus on the material culture representing foodways, like fragments of brick stoves, faunal remains, cauldrons, pewter sadware, stemware, and cutlery excavated from the wreckage site. It will also compare foodways artifacts to archaeological collections from other slave and pirate shipwrecks. This research initiative aims to add further information and analysis to understanding experiences aboard 18th-century pirate and slave vessels that sailed across the Atlantic. It will contribute towards other themes such as health, slave trade, 18th century piracy, and French maritime history.Item Restricted "...They do what they know" :: assessing the impact of geography upon the strategy, operations, and tactics of two American military campaigns in South Vietnam(East Carolina University) Wilhelm, Jeffrey D.Item Open Access “GUNS AND SHIPS AND SO THE BALANCE SHIFTS”: USING ARTIFACT PATTERNING TO CONTEXTUALIZE A SALVAGED ASSEMBLAGE DATED TO THE BATTLE OF YORKTOWN, 1781(East Carolina University, 2023-05-03) Schuler, JillianBefore General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, he scuttled a portion of his shipping fleet along the Yorktown riverbank to defend the town from a Franco- American amphibious attack. An environment rife with maritime material culture, the river has been subject to formal and informal salvage, including a joint effort in the 1930s by the Mariners' Museum and the National Park Service that produced a significant artifact assemblage with minimal archaeological context. This thesis will attempt to contextualize the 1930s salvaged assemblage of York River through an artifact pattern developed from four case studies: HMS Invincible (1758), HMS Swift (1770), General Carleton (1785), and Betsy (1781). The artifact pattern presents potential archaeological distinctions between British naval and merchant vessels during the second half of the 18th century.Item Open Access Exploring the Maritime Task System of Somerset Place(East Carolina University, 2023-05-03) Tabeling, Mackenzie MirreEastern North Carolina's maritime industry was dependent on the labor of free and enslaved maritime workers. These maritime laborers contributed to maritime development in a multitude of ways, from working on large seagoing vessels to preparing flatboats to carry plantation produce along canals. This thesis examines the personal characteristics, social relationships, and cognitive understandings which fabricated maritime tasks of an enslaved community belonging to the Collins family living in Edenton, in Chowan County and Somerset Place in Washington County, North Carolina from 1786 to 1864. This research analyzes the historical documents of the plantation owners and businessmen in the area to understand the motivation of task assignment within the maritime industry of northeastern North Carolina.Item Open Access The War For Southern Minds: The Battles For Lost Cause History Books In North Carolina Schools(East Carolina University, 2023-05-04) Melville, AustonThe United Daughters of the Confederacy set about to enshrine the ideology of the Lost Cause in the school literature of the South. Due to political upheaval in the 1890s, the Daughters had an extraordinary foundation upon which to begin their work. Throughout the following decades the Daughters fought to keep literature antithetical to their position out of schools. However, during this same time the Division had several factors hindering their work such as a reduction in numbers and a split focus. This thesis examines the beginning of the Daughters' power, major victories, and traces their decline in the literary war from the period of 1890-1976.Item Open Access From USS Stars and Stripes to Metropolis (1861-present): Modeling the Life, Loss, and Archaeological Site Formation of a Currituck Beach Shipwreck (Corolla, North Carolina)(East Carolina University, 2023-05-04) Pawelski, MatthewThe steamship Metropolis went aground off Currituck Beach, North Carolina, on 31 January 1878. The disaster led to loss of life and subsequent reformation of the United States Life-Saving Service. In the years since, there has been an ongoing interest in correlating an archaeological site to the historical vessel. This thesis employs behavioral archaeological approaches to reconstruct the vessel in its historic and archaeological contexts using computer aided design (CAD) software named Rhinoceros 3D. Completed historical models were then compared to the historical accounts of the wreck to account for wreck deposition and potentially identifiable debris. In addition, fieldwork was carried out at the proposed site of the disaster to study exposed beach wreckage and create a detailed inventory of potential shipwreck sites, both exposed and buried.Item Open Access Black Gold in the Deep Blue Sea: An Exploration of Shipwreck Search Modeling in the Search for SS William Rockefeller(East Carolina University, 2023-05-04) Detlie, John EdwinThe waters off the North Carolina coast are home to a veritable graveyard of shipwrecks. Many were destroyed by the eternal enemies of all ships--storms, fire, and grounding--but many others have fallen victim to the ravages of war. Between 1941 and 1945, 87 ships were lost off North Carolina; 52 of these were casualties of the Battle of the Atlantic. Many of these wrecks have been found, and their last resting places marked for posterity. Some, however, remain lost. This thesis will explore the possibility of locating one of these missing wrecks, the oil tanker William Rockefeller. Rockefeller is historically significant for three reasons. First, from the time of its launch in 1921 to its sinking on 28 June 1942, it was one of the largest oil tankers in the world. Second, it earned the unfortunate distinction of being the largest ship lost off the North Carolina coast during the Battle of the Atlantic of WWII. Third, it is one of the last of these WWII-era wrecks whose location is not known. Ships like HMT Bedfordshire, Bluefields, Caribsea, Dixie Arrow, Papoose, and U-576 have all been found, but Rockefeller remains elusive, due to the circumstances of its sinking. Because of its cargo of heavy fuel oil, it is also a potential risk for severe pollution of the Eastern seaboard, so locating it is crucial in order to begin planning potential mitigation strategies. This thesis will seek to establish the most promising areas in which to search for the wreck through a combination of historical research, probability mapping, and computer modeling. If successful, this methodology may be of use in the creation of search models for other lost shipwrecks.Item Restricted "A fair return for the investment in money and labour" :slavery from 1695 to 1802 in North Carolina's Albemarle region(East Carolina University) Thompson, Robert S.Item Restricted Conflict and commerce :maritime archaeological site distribution as cultural change on the Roanoke River, North Carolina(East Carolina University) Price, Franklin Haines.Item Restricted Archaeological and historical site investigation/thesis of the John's Island wreck (EDS0001)(East Carolina University) Neidinger, Adriane Askins.Item Restricted Anatomy of a 17th century slave ship :historical and archaeological investigations of "The Henrietta Marie 1699".(East Carolina University) Moore, David D.Item Restricted Return to the Stone Age :the maritime history and nautical archaeology of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin's Dolomite Industry(East Carolina University) Moore, James D.,III.Item Open Access Were they liable? :comparing the Johnstown Flood Museum and the Johnstown Flood National Memorial(East Carolina University) Moore, Katherine Jean O'Connor.Item Restricted Prince Rupert :a controversial general in the English Civil War, 1642-1645(East Carolina University) Lawson, Dean F.