Instead of the traditional particularist or historiographic approach used by maritime archaeologists, Muckelroy's ideas were new to the field, influenced by the prehistoric and analytical archaeology he learned under Grahame Clark and David Clarke at Cambridge, the tenets of processual archaeology gaining traction in the U.S., and his own experiences on shipwreck sites in British waters, notably the 1664 Dutch East Indiaman Kennemerland, several Spanish Armada wrecks, and the Mary Rose.
Muckelroy's other prominent contribution was a three-part interpretive framework for better understanding the ship in its original social context.
[4] This basic model has proven useful to many maritime archaeologists seeking to understand the role of ships as part of a greater cultural system.
[9] He believed that archaeological research on more recent wrecks, such as early iron vessels and steamships, was a waste of time because more information on them could be gleaned from material in archives and in museums than from artifacts recovered from the seabed.
Entries are eligible if they address work in Britain, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey or British territorial waters.