About

Shelley Wachsmann is the Meadows Professor of Biblical Archaeology in the Nautical Archaeology Program within the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on nautical archaeology, seafaring, and cultic use of ships, primarily in the eastern Mediterranean during its formative period. Wachsmann has a deep interest in interpreting ancient ship iconography and has conducted field projects including deep-water surveys, paleo-environmental studies, and remote-sensing expeditions. His work extends to exploring maritime aspects of cultures such as the Rapanui of Easter Island and the Phoenicians, with recent projects involving geoarchaeological and geophysical land surveys and deep-water ROV examinations. He has authored numerous articles and seven books, with three receiving international awards, covering topics from Minoan depictions in Egyptian tombs to Bronze Age ship models and biblical seafaring. Wachsmann holds a PhD from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has contributed significantly to the understanding of ancient maritime activities through excavation, interpretation, and publication.

Research topics

• Geology
• Geography
• Oceanography
• History
• Archaeology
• Geomorphology

Selected publications

• Reconstructing a late Archaic-period Dionysian ship cart

  Zbornik radova Filozofskog fakulteta u Pristini · 2023-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The Greek deity Dionysos had a particular affinity for war galleys, a relationship perhaps explained by the Homeric Hymn to Dionysos in which Tyrsenian pirates kidnap him on their galley. Soon grape vines entangle the rigging and some of the pirates attempt to escape their fate by jumping into the sea: Dionysos transforms them into dolphins. This hymn served as an occasional motif in pagan art and may explain the miniaturized replicas of seagoing oared ships that played an integral role in the ancient Dionysian cult. These flimsy Dionysian ship carts moved overland in parades, either on wheels or upon the shoulders of celebrants. While the earliest examples may date to the Late Bronze Age, they are best known from a series of three late Archaic-period representations on black-figure skyphoi, now in museums in Athens, Bologna and London. No two Archaic-period Dionysian ship-cart representations are identical in all details. While perhaps due to painters' whims, this diversity in appearance may reflect changes to the ship carts at each annual appearance, analogous to modern-day parade floats. Due to the two-dimensional nature of these ship-cart images, it is impossible today to determine whether the Dionysian ship carts reflected in them consisted of actual vessels-purpose-built and placed on wagons during the procession, employed solely for the Dionysian celebrations-or floats in the form of miniaturized galleys. This paper supplies context and explains the process of creating a three-dimensional digital reconstruction of a generic Late Archaic-period Dionysian ship cart employing contemporaneous imagery and artifacts.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• ‘He Went Down to Joppa and Found a Ship Going to Tarshish’ (Jonah 1:3): Landscape Reconstruction at Jaffa and a Potential Early Harbour

  The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology · 2022 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Archaeology
  • Oceanography
  • Geography

  Recent excavations of Tel Yafo (Jaffa), Israel, underscore its role as an historically important Mediterranean port. In 2014, the Ioppa Maritima Project conducted a geological investigation determining that from ca. 5000–2000 years BP, a small estuarine system existed east and north of Tel Yafo that could have served as a harbour. The marine re-entrant formed through sea-level rise and flooding of a small valley, and the stream mouth was probably also partially blocked by coastal sands. Sediment aggradation, wetland development, and anthropogenic activity largely filled the embayment leaving only a depression east of Tel Yafo in the area of Bloomfield Stadium and Groningen Park.

  PublisherDOI

• George F. Bass: (1932-2021)

  ˜The œBiblical archaeology review/Biblical archaeology review · 2021-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• The Sea Peoples

  Duke University Press eBooks · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Geography
  • History
  • Oceanography
  PublisherDOI

• Hahotrim, Israel:

  Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks · 2020-09-03 · 2 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Sea Peoples

  Duke University Press eBooks · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Geography
  • Oceanography
  • Geology
  PublisherDOI

• On the Interpretation of Watercraft in Ancient Art

  Arts · 2019-12-11 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In the past six decades since its inception, nautical archaeologists have excavated and studied the hulls, cargoes, and other remains of ancient watercraft. However, shipwrecks themselves only tell part of the story. The archaeological record is replete with examples of known shipwrecks from some cultures and periods, but, for others, no hulls exist in the known archaeological record. Vagaries of preservation generally prevent the upper parts and rigging of a vessel to survive in all but the most remarkable of cases. This paper reviews the role of iconographic representations in understanding ancient vessels and seafaring by presenting the issues, examining the limitations, proposing interpretative methods for, and finally by supplying specific examples of, ancient nautical depictions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Towards a Global Public-Private Protection Model

  Offshore Technology Conference · 2017-04-24

  articleSenior author

  The offshore energy extraction industry, both renewables and oil and gas, continues to push into frontier areas where little to no protection exists for underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites. Despite relatively rigorous regulatory requirements in the United States and the North Sea, other areas around the world have minimal to no cultural heritage regulatory frameworks to manage discovered archaeological sites. Operators with experience in more mature fields often assume any archaeological discoveries will result either in additional regulatory pressure by the national or domestic government, or that the sites will be protected as a matter of course. Unfortunately, a patchwork of cultural heritage laws that imperfectly interface with offshore energy regulations can all too often result in no protection for these sites, meaning the sites are protected only by the silence that surrounds their discovery. A new model, under development by partners from the energy industry and external cultural heritage experts, suggests a solution: a standalone database of discovered antiquity sites from energy extraction projects that would be voluntarily shared both with industry partners and government regulators. Operators would be able to access the database to help guide field decisions, and regulators would be able to use the information in their efforts to prevent looting and unauthorized salvage by third party salvage firms. The concept, while simplistic, requires industry and governmental consultation and cooperation. This paper provides an overview of the solution, and calls for assistance from stakeholders to help solve a 21st century archaeological and industry problem - protecting the sites that lie deep beneath the surface, and that have survived for thousands of years - while allowing responsible energy development to continue.

  PublisherDOI

• Jaffa’s Ancient Inland Harbor:

  2017-12-31 · 1 citations

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• IN SEARCH OF THE “SOLOMONIC” HARBOR, JAFFA, ISRAEL

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2016-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Donald H. Sanders

  10 shared

• Richard K. Dunn

  Norwich University

  5 shared

• Dan Davis

  Luther College

  5 shared

• Filipe Castro

  University of Coimbra

  4 shared

• Aaron A. Burke

  3 shared

• Simona Avnaim‐Katav

  Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research

  3 shared

• Robert L. Hohlfelder

  2 shared

• Lawrence B. Conyers

  2 shared

Labs

• Nautical Archaeology ProgramPI

Education

• Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology, the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Disse, Archaeology

  Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  1990

• MA in Near Eastern Archaeology, cum laude, the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Jerusale, Archaeology

  Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  1984

• BA (Near Eastern and Classical Archaeology) cum laude, Archaeology

  Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  1974

Awards & honors

• Three of his books have received international book awards