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Michael Brennan

Michael L. Brennan
103A OSEC
mlbrennan@gso.uri.edu
http://www.nautiluslive.org

Educational Background

B.A.
M.A.
Ph.D.
 Bowdoin College
University of Rhode Island
University of Rhode Island
 2004
2008

Areas of Specialization

Research

My research interests involve the applications of scientific methods and analyses to archaeological questions. More specifically, my recent work has been focused on investigating the modern landscapes around archaeological sites in order to characterize the environmental parameters that have been at work at a site since its abandonment. I have applied this approach to both shipwreck sites in the Black and Aegean Seas as well as Maya sites in Belize, with a variety of methods including side-scan sonar, petrography, magnetic susceptibility, micromorphology, and ICP-MS analysis. Viewing sites from their abandonment to the present day provides an understanding of the ways these sites have changed and come into equilibrium with the surrounding environment over time, which will help us interpret the data acquired during excavations of these sites.

Publications:

Brennan, Michael L., 2011. Geological survey of historical cemeteries, Jamestown, Rhode Island, 1693-1900. Historical Archaeology 45(4).

Brennan, M.L., Ballard, R.D., Croff Bell, K.L., and Piechota, D., 2011. Archaeological oceanography and environmental characterization of shipwrecks in the Black Sea, in Buynevich, I., Yanko-Hombach, V., Gilbert, A., and Martin, R.E., eds., Geology and Geoarchaeology of the Black Sea Region: Beyond the Flood Hypothesis: Geological Society of America Special Paper 473, p. 179–188, doi: 10.1130/2011.2473(11).

Brennan, Michael L. 2010. The disarticulation of ancient shipwreck sites by mobile fishing gear: A case study from the southeast Aegean Sea. INA Quarterly 36(4): 6-7.

Brennan, Michael L. 2009. Ancient shipwreck survey and the modern submarine landscape off Yalikavak, Turkey. Marine Technology Society Journal 43(1): 47-49.

Presentations:

 

Brennan, Michael L., 2011. Quantification of trawl damage to premodern shipwreck sites: Case studies from the Aegean and Black Seas. Paper presented at the 2011 UNESCO Scientific Colloquium and Intergovernmental Meeting for Europe on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, Leuven University, Brussels.