Dr. Donny Hamilton retired as President of INA on December 31, 2007, and Dr. James Delgado assumed the post of Interim President on January 1, 2008. In April, the Board elected Dr. Delgado President and CEO of INA.
The Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) edited and published the first volume of a new journal, the INA Annual, which reports on the results of INA projects around the world. The first issue reports on 2007 projects.
INA completed a comprehensive publication strategy and plan in cooperation with Texas A&M University Press.
Under the direction of Dr. James P. Delgado, President of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, a new INA website was begun to update content, make additional content accessible, and to create new web-based architecture with a new content management system (CMS). A preliminary beta site was put online in midyear. Developing the new CMS, web architecture, and writing new text continued through the end of 2008; the new site, www.inadiscover.com, went online in early 2009.
Mr. Mark Polzer, NAP graduate student, completed the second season at the Bajo de la Campana Project in Spain, which was the first season of full-scale excavation with Spanish governmental authorities of a 7th century B.C. Phoenician shipwreck.
Dr. Cemal Pulak, NAP Professor, along with several Nautical Archaeology Program students completed the excavation of four 7th-10th century AD Ottoman shipwrecks at a land excavation site at Yenikapi, in Istanbul, Turkey, and continued the post-recovery conservation and documentation of four hulls recovered in 2007.
Dr. Cemal Pulak , NAP Professor, along with four students, analyzed Uluburun artifacts for the final report. Dr, Pulak consulted and assisted the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in a major exhibition, “Beyond Babylon,” which featured the Uluburun artifacts, and prepared an extensive and detailed chapter for the exhibition catalog. The exhibition opened in November 2008 and would run through March 2009.
Dr. James P. Delgado (INA), working with Dr. Dominique Rissolo of the Waitt Institute of Discovery, and Mr. Frederick Hanselmann, an INA research associate at Indiana University, and INA director Donald Geddes, and with full support from the Waitt Institute, conducted a preliminary archaeological survey of the approaches and mouth of the Rio Chagres in Panama, documenting submerged structures, fortifications, shipwrecks and material culture dating from 1630 to 1945.
Mr. John Pollack, and Dr. Robyn P. Woodward, INA Research Associates, conducted a second season of survey and documentation of Klondike Gold Rush shipwrecks in Canada’s Yukon Territory, and located a previously undiscovered 1898 wreck, A.J. Goddard, in Lake Labarge. Working with Epicscan, Ltd., an Oregon-based imaging and survey firm, Pollack and Epicscan’s Carlos Velasquez produced the initial documentation of a LIDAR-surveyed shore side wreck, Evelyn, which they surveyed in 2007.
Dr. Deborah Carlson, Nautical Archaeology Program (NAP) Associate Professor of Texas A&M University, supervised three NAP graduate students in Bodrum who conducted laboratory documentation and analysis of excavated materials from a 1st-century BC Roman marble carrier at Kızılburun, Turkey.
Dr. Donny L. Hamilton, Past President of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) and Nautical Archaeology Program (NAP) Professor of Texas A&M University, continued to work on the final report on the Port Royal Project in Jamaica.
Dr. George F. Bass, Founder of INA and NAP Distinguished Professor Emeritus, worked with editors at Texas A&M University Press as they prepared the second volume of the Serçe Limani series, Serce L?man?: An Eleventh-Century Shipwreck, for publication as part of the Ed Rachal Foundation Nautical Archaeology Series at Texas A&M University.
Dr. Frederick van Doorninck, Jr., NAP Professor Emeritus, continued work on volume three of the Serce Limani report series that is to be published in the Ed Rachal Foundation Nautical Archaeology Series at Texas A&M University.
Dr. Frederick van Doorninck, Jr., NAP Professor Emeritus, also conducted a survey and assessment of iron concretions from the Byzantine shipwreck excavated at Bozburun, Turkey, and working with INA Bodrum conservator Asaf Oron, prepared several concretions for casting.
Dr. Kevin Crisman, NAP Professor, commenced analysis and writing for publication on the results of five years of excavation on Heroine, an early 19th-century river boat in the Red River for the Oklahoma Historical Association.
Dr. Filipe Viera de Castro, NAP Professor, conducted a survey project of 18th century shipwrecks off the coast of Puerto Rico in the summer of 2008.
Dr. Shelley Wachsmann, Nautical Archaeology Program professor, in conjunction with INA, the Canadian Institute in Greece, the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Archaeology, and the Hellenic Center for Marine Research conducted the 2008 deep water survey in the Mediterranean for Minoan shipwrecks.
Dr. Ralph Pederson, INA Research Associate, conducted a second season of survey for submerged cultural resources including shipwrecks off the coast of Lebanon and located an Iron Age wreck.
Mr. Randall J. Sasaki, NAP graduate student, worked with Flinders University graduate student Jun Kimura in the documentation of two wooden anchors recovered from the Song Hong, or Red River, off Hanoi, Vietnam.
Mr. Sasaki and Mr. Kimura, working with INA President Dr. James Delgado, Dr. Mark Staniforth of Flinders University (Australia) and INA directors Claude Duthuit and George Belcher, conducted a preliminary survey of the site of the Battle of Bach Dang (1288), near Haiphong, Vietnam, the site of a battle between Vietnamese and invading Chinese and Mongol naval forces.
Mr. Asaf Oron, INA Bodrum Research Center Conservator, conducted a second season of a coastal survey along the Dead Sea in Israel.
The Conservation staff in Bodrum Turkey continued the conservation of the artifacts from the 1300 BC Uluburun, the 1st-century BC K?z?lburun, and other shipwreck materials from other INA projects.
Mr. Ben Ford, NAP graduate student, conducted a third season in 2008 on a survey project in conjunction with the Lake Ontario Maritime Cultural Landscape Project.
Mr. Kroum Batchvarov , NAP graduate student, continues to work on the final report on an early 18th-century shipwreck in the Black Sea in Bulgaria for his dissertation.
Justin Leidwanger, former NAP graduate student, now a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, completed another survey season at Cape Greco on the on the eastern coast of Cyprus.
Mr. Pearce Paul Creasman, NAP graduate student, conducted a remote sensing survey of the Dashur pyramid complex in Egypt to locate buried and obscured pits used to inter funereal ships and boats.
Dr. Elizabeth Greene of Brock University, and an INA Research Associate, working with Justin Leidwanger, conducted a field survey and photo documentation of an Iron Age Shipwreck at Kekova Adasi, Turkey
Lilia Campana, NAP graduate student, conducted research in Venice with rare Venetian naval manuscripts as part of a study of Renaissance shipbuilding.
Dr. James P. Delgado, INA President, working with Mr. Frederick Hanselmann, Mr. John W. McKay, and a multidisciplinary team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, with full project support from the Waitt Institute for Discovery, completed the archaeological documentation and assessed the marine environment surrounding the wreck of the 1865 American-built submersible Sub Marine Explorer at Isla San Telmo, Panama.
Dr. Peter van Alfen of the American Numismatic Society and Dr. Frederick van Doorninck, Jr., NAP Professor Emeritus, continued the restudy of the amphorae of the Yass?ada shipwreck.
Mr. J. Barto Arnold, INA Archaeologist, completed the publication of a historical study of Confederate supply logistics as part of the Denbigh Project, a Civil War blockade runner that ran aground in Galveston Bay, and continued work on a manuscript that will be submitted to Texas A&M University Press for publication.
Mr. Carlos Cabrera, a NAP doctoral student, conducted an investigation of the recovered hull of the Mazarron 1 shipwreck, a Phoenician period coastal craft in Cartagena that was recovered by the Museum of Underwater Archaeology.
Mr. Tufan Turanlı, INA Bodrum Center director, conducted the second season of survey and excavation of the 19th century Ottoman naval frigate Ertugrul, wrecked off Kushimoto, Japan.