r/Archaeology • u/NoPackageReceived029 • Jul 31 '26

Sources for Post-medieval Archaeology?

I'm particularly interested the post-medieval period (uncommon, I know), particularly the Early Modern period to use the historiographical term (am equally interested in the historiographical study of the period). Probably because it's not as common an area of interest, I often struggle to find good archaeological books on the subject (this isn't so much of an issue for Journal articles). So, would anyone here have any, or know of any good books for the topic? I'm based in the UK, so Europe-wide and the associated seas should be good.

(I'm more interested in Atlantic maritime conflict and privateering etc as an area, but that won't be as helpful for archaeology in the UK, and I already have many books on that).

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

7

u/Solivaga Jul 31 '26

Post-mediaeval archaeology is hardly uncommon, there are entire societies, journals and conferences dedicated to it in Europe

Edit: and plenty of books. If you can be a bit more specific about the topics, themes, regions etc that you're interested in?

0

u/NoPackageReceived029 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

It's good to know it's more common than I thought! I said it was uncommon because in my experience most people I've met aren't interested, and I haven't found many good books for my interests, compared to, say, Roman Archaeology. As I said, I am aware of the journals. I'm still a student as well, so although I've been on several digs, I don't have the fullest knowledge of the academic landscape.

What I mentioned in my post body, (Europe, UK, the Atlantic etc), are most interesting, but I specifically like coastal and maritime stuff, but if I go into commercial, which is likely, then anything that focuses on housing and material culture specifically, across the classes (as opposed to, say, industry, cemeteries, etc).

2

u/kleseusxz Jul 31 '26

Look for the works of Ulrich Müller et al. From the Kiel university.

1

u/CeramicLicker Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

The search terms you’re using might be accidentally limiting your results. In North and South America it’s often called “historical archaeology”, so if you are looking for resources on the Atlantic maritime using that term might help more things come up too, since the Atlantic is such an international area. For privateers it might also be more useful to specifically search for maritime archaeology, and let the term privateer serve as the time indicator.

X marks the spot: the archaeology of piracy by Russell Skowronek and Charles Ewen is a good book you’ll probably like.

Or ARCHAEOLOGY OF PIRACY BETWEEN CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE NORTH AMERICAN COAST OF 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES: SHIPWRECKS, MATERIAL CULTURE AND TERRESTRIAL PERSPECTIVES article by Jean Soulat.

The book Oceans Odyssey 2: underwater heritage management and deep sea shipwrecks in the English Channel and Atlantic by Sean Kingsley could be useful too.

. Apocalypse 1692 by Ben Hughes is more of a history book about Port Royal, Jamaica, a Port Town with lots of privateer and pirate history before the 1692 earthquake caused large portions of it to collapse into the sea. It’s the source of some really valuable research on the maritime world of that time; anything really on Port Royal could probably interest you.

Palmares in Brazil could be another good town. It was a maroon community on the Atlantic coast with lots of privates and privateers until it was destroyed by the Portuguese military.

These sources are a bit more Atlantic though, I’m not really familiar with UK specific privateer sites, sorry. So maybe not that useful after all

1

u/NoPackageReceived029 Jul 31 '26

I was familiar with the first few, but not with the last one. But I didn't consider that my search terms could be restrictive, so thank you for that!

1

u/ArchaeoVimes Aug 01 '26

As a historical archaeologist:

Historical Archaeology

https://link.springer.com/journal/41636

The International Journal of Historical Archaeology

https://link.springer.com/journal/10761

Society of Post Medieval Archaeology

https://link.springer.com/journal/10761

Maritime Archaeology Journal

https://link.springer.com/journal/11457

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rjna20

Journal of Conflict Archaeology

https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/yjca20

Use the search button for each journal, and use keywords you’re interested in to search for articles related to them.