Archaeology: Just Add Water. Underwater Research at the University of Warsaw

The volume, which we hereby present to our esteemed Readers, is the vivid proof that underwater archaeology at the University of Warsaw is doing more than well. It is the second publication in the ""Światowit" Supplement Series U: Underwater Archaeology", issued for now (and we hope this pace will be sustained!) with a frequency of a periodical. Within the book one might find i.a. the texts being an outcome of the international 3rd Warsaw Seminar on Underwater Archaeology, organized in the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. The Readers will discover here the articles presenting broad chronological and geographical range of issues: from the Prehistory until the Second World War, from Guatemala and Peru to Poland and Slovakia. We are trying to reflect this diversified character also by the choice of photographs on the cover. The leitmotif of all this vast range of archaeological issues is water: realm bearing a magnificent symbolic character. Changing its colour (even during the day – from the blackness, through greyness, then blue, until the bloody-red at the sunset, turning again into black) and visibility, it has manifested also other features, which can be contemplated as signs of its animation, such as movement: horizontal (currents, waves, tides) and vertical (fluctuations of the surface). It was also the source of life quite literally, providing food and dihydrogen monoxide, essential for living. Along with its whole mystery and dangerousness, water may also serve as a refuge (lake settlements from the early Iron Age) and a trade route, at the end of which there is a (hopefully) safe harbour. That is how underwater archaeology marches onto the land... Although, it is neither place nor time for the deliberation about the definitions of archaeology related to water environment; the discussion in this matter has lasted for many years, abound in more and more new terminological propositions, still being far from any resolutions. Whichever position we assume in the aforementioned debate, it is impossible not to notice that the symbolism, the rituals, and everyday casual activities essential for life and connected with water pass through each other, which is well-exemplified by the hereby volume. Objects lost during transportation and other kinds of exploitation of water basins, items put in the water as a matter of rituals, military aspects connected with watery environment, lake settlements, harbours, and trade – all of that and even more you can discover in "Just Add Water 2".