Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology

Students from the Intro to Maritime and Underwater Archaeology course here at UCSD had a blast presenting their final posters and interactive activities at Birch Aquarium last Friday! We had 13 teams of students presenting on a wide range of maritime and coastal archaeological projects around the world. Thanks to for hosting us as always and to all of students who did such amazing work this quarter!

Les presentamos el equipo Roboghost de la escuela Leoncio Meléndez de Las Piedras, Puerto Rico. Se encuentran en la competición del first Lego League Challenge en Puerto Rico, junto a ellos se encuentra nuestra Postdoc Mariela Declet Pérez quien ha estado sirviendo de ascesora del proyecto de innovación ya que la tematica de este año de competición es la Arqueología. Los jovenes presentaron su prototipo Arqueo Rover el cual esta inspirado en los rovers de marte y contiene lidar, gps, gpr, camara, termometro y un brazo mecanicobpara tomar muestras en el procesobde survey de sitios arqueológicos.

On Friday, students in the Introduction to Maritime and Underwater Archaeology course here at UCSD participated in their yearly site recording activity. We cant always take students underwater, but we always enjoy finding creative ways to teach underwater methods! The ~65 person course is taught by SCMA graduate students Loren Clark and Nathaniel James. SCMA associate director Dominique Rissolo was also kind enough to come by to help everyone gain important hands on experience!

Come see our SCMA researchers present on our work Thursday Afternoon at SHA! We made it easy on everyone by keeping our presentations all in one symposium, so please come over to learn about some of our recent projects!

Faculty and students from the SCMA are heading to the Society for Historical Archaeology conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology in Detroit this week! We are so excited to join colleagues and friends for a fun-filled week of archaeology in Detroit!!!!

October has been a busy month for the SCMA! Following our Fall All-Hands meeting, we’ve had 3 different outreach and engagement events. Starting with Walter Munk Day, our team was once again delighted to be part of the large gathering of marine science and advocacy groups at La Jolla Shores for a great day of public engagement. The same day, our SCMA team working with the Rising Voices Changing Coastlines project met with community members in Puerto Rico to showcase updates and plans with local stakeholders focusing on community led research goals. Finally, we were honored to present at the SCA Southern Data Sharing Meeting this past Saturday to more formally introduce ourselves to the regional archaeological community and highlight some of our local projects in Southern California! Look out for more events coming up in November and throughout the rest of the winter!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our fist All Hands meeting of the academic year! We are excited to welcome new affiliates and welcome back all of our amazing faculty, staff, and student members. Keep up on all of our exciting plans this year through social media and on our website scma.ucsd.edu!

Check out this amazing highlight from Scripps News on some of our summer research in the Caribbean!

Uncovering the History of the Caribbean Archipelago This summer, a team of researchers and students from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography worked alongside researchers Sophia Perdikaris of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Reg Murphy of Antigua and Barbuda National Commission for UNESCO, Edith Gonzalez of the University at Buffa...

Another international stage for the SCMA! Associate directors Christian McDonald and Dominique Rissolo traveled to Paris last week to attend the meeting of the State Parties for the UNESCO 2001 Convention for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage! Both Dominique and Christian gave talks on the SCMA’s ongoing commitment to the protection of underwater cultural heritage, especially in the time of ever growing climate concerns. They also were able to attend the conference with one of our collaborators, Sam Meacham, who directs the non-profit CINDAQ in Mexico. We were honored to be part of both UN meetings this month and we look forward to continuing work with our global and local collaborators!

The SCMA was honored to participate in the first ever SEA Club Lab Expo! This group of undergraduate marine scientists did an amazing job managing wave after wave of students interested in finding practical experience in one of the many labs at SIO. We look forward to participating next year as well!

SCMA faculty and students had a blast this week in Denver at the SAA conference! Alongside a large showing of UCSD grad students, our researchers presented some of the exciting ongoing work in Mexico and Puerto Rico! As always, it was amazing to connect with new and old colleagues. Thanks for organizing!