By Nicolás C. Ciarlo, Associate Editor for Maritime Archaeology
Complex issues require from us ingenious and creative responses. Our social world is under vertiginous changes —this is not new at all, of course— that compels us to be more flexible and cooperative. This global pandemic and associated quarantine have defied our daily lifestyle, while boosting powerful human qualities to find adequate solutions.
| Nicolás working from home |
In Argentina, we have been experiencing a preventive isolation since mid-March, and working from home suddenly turned into the rule. After a long period of very fruitful and intense academic travelling, this stationary phase became for me an opportunity to reflect, wrap up work, and plan new projects. In this novel theatre, the cloud-based software platforms for telecommuting have played a key role for research, teaching, and communication to the general public. As part of my regular tasks at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), I have advanced with my desk work, including writing collaborative communications. For instance, together with different specialists from the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina and the Centre for Underwater Archaeology of Catalonia, we plan to submit a paper on lead isotope analysis of stock anchors from the Roman period to Archaeometry (M. Bavio et al.). Other manuscripts have been edited and published during these months, such as a book chapter with the results of a spatial analysis of a historical battlefield in the Argentinean pampas (C. Landa et al.) and a brief paper on the nautical archaeology studies at the Chinchorro Bank, in Arqueología Mexicana (L. Carrillo et al.).
Likewise, I have devoted time to an increasing number of reviewing tasks, mainly for journals. This particular scenario also allowed me to enhance networking with other South-American archaeologists, mainly from Chile and Uruguay, in a collaborative enterprise to study shipwrecks and maritime-related sites from the late-Colonial and early-Independent periods. In addition, I have finished a grant proposal for the H2020 Programme to conduct research in Spain next year, with focus on innovations in European metallurgy and nautical technology between the 18th- and mid-19th centuries.
Teaching online lessons of Anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and virtual supervision of my MA and PhD students from Argentina, Mexico and Spain have occupied a special place as well. At the University of Cadiz, one of these students remotely defended his MA dissertation, where he analysed the last voyage of the Spanish Navy cruiser Reina Regente (1895) and applied a Lagrangian dispersion model based on historical data to assess the possible sinking location (O. Ortega Pérez). Moreover, A. Zuccolotto Villalobos, from the College of Michoacan in Mexico, is also planning to submit his MA dissertation on a historical and archaeometric study of Muntz metal used in ships sheathing later this year.
During this quarantine, I have also organized diverse outreach activities, for instance within the Scientific Committee of the Argentinean Federation of Underwater Activities (FAAS-CMAS). By attending online conferences, open talks, and regular work meetings, I have fortified the previous relations and created new bounds with several colleagues from different countries. This situation prompted the development of the Nautical Archaeology Digital Library, an open science initiative of the Ship Lab at Texas A&M University, to share information about shipwrecks around the world. A paper on this project was recently submitted to Virtual Archaeology Review (R. Borrero et al.). All these distance working and web-based activities allowed us, in a way, to face these uncertain circumstances while remaining closer than ever.
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