Connecting Sunken Actors: Social Network Analysis in Maritime Archaeology

The concept of a "social network" has become a popular term thanks to online tools such as Facebook or Twitter, allowing us to connect with everyone. Specific to archaeology, social network analysis (SNA) is well established as a method, but its theoretical application in maritime archaeology is an incipient initiative. This paper presents the use of SNA in maritime archaeology as a potential instrument to reinterpret underwater sites by integrating spatial and nonspatial patterns of cultural contact. The method implies an abstraction of an historical phenomenon in concepts of network analysis to be represented as network data. Using early Australian shipwrecks as examples, this paper shows how the application of SNA in maritime archaeological contexts can help to analyze and visualize flow of material goods, power, influence, and social control. As a result, it can be argued that exploring the structural position of actors in a network can reveal information about developing relationships in maritime contexts during the past.