Salon 68 Archaeomythology and Citizen Science

The discipline of archaeomythology which expands the interpretive parameters of archaeology, was created during the 1980s by the Lithuanian-North American archaeologist, Dr. Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994), and is continued by the Institute of Archaeomythology based in California, USA, under the direction of Dr. Joan Marler. This international organization encourages an interdisciplinary approach to cultural research, and dialogue among specialists in diverse fields, with special emphasis on the beliefs, rituals, iconography and social structure of traditional societies, and their continuity over time.

Upon recently learning about the existence and development of this discipline, CCBEM, realized that the inclusion of traditional knowledge within archaeology is a framework of knowledge that the Centro have already embraced during their 8 years of citizen research in underwater community archaeology in Costa Rica.

Its culturally stewarded project “Expedition Galleons and Other Vessels” has developed five Expeditions that have studied and documented the vestiges of sunken ships in the bottom of the Caribbean Sea, especially those in the Cahuita National Park, that might refer to the Transatlantic Slavery Traffic between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Ambassadors of the Sea has called its methodology “citizen science.” This practice emerged locally in the Caribbean through the process of learning and integrating the methods and techniques of academic archaeology, combined with the ancestral knowledge that young Afro, Bribri and mestizo divers bring into the process. Ancestral knowledge is interdisciplinary in its nature because knowledge learned in the process of living life is not fragmented.