Hi all
to add a little more info to this discussion...

Since 1999 Heritage Victoria has been undertaking a significance
assessment of Amnesty (declared during an amnesty under the Historic
Shipwrecks  Acts 1996 & 1981 (Vic) in 1993) shipwreck artefacts held by
private custodians. I have been involved with this project since 2002 and
have been assessing artefacts for their significance in order to determine
conservation policy and preservation outcomes for particularly important
objects. The shipwreck artefact assemblage is quite unique in that as
registered artefacts under the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 (Cth) &
(various) state Heritage Acts (eg Vic 1995), shipwrecks relics are not
deaccessioned (at present). While there is certainly bias in the
'collecting' (ceramics, glass and copper alloy artefacts predominate) and
as privately held artefacts they have not been professionally
archaeologically excavated, the difference with these assemblages is that
artefacts recovered from shipwreck sites by divers etc  do not suffer from
the 'what is significant enough to retain' issue (as noted by Alasdair).
Divers seem to keep everything... :-). A report (entitled "Collection
Management for Shipwreck Relics: Amnesty Artefacts Significance Assessment
Victoria 2003 Interim Report") on this project is currently in press and
will be available in the 2004 edition of the Bulletin of the Australasian
Institute for Maritime Archaeology.

In addition to this,  typological studies have more recently been
undertaken by maritime archaeologists in Australia. A good example is
Nigel Erskine's ceramics catalogue from the Norfolk Island Museum
(Erskine, N., 2002. Kingston Ceramics:  A Dictionary of Ceramic Wares in the Norfolk Island
Museum. Kingston: Norfolk Island Museum).

Continuing on from the (presently incomplete) significance assessment of
Amnesty objects, I am currently creating a reference catalogue of glass
bottles and containers from selected shipwrecks sites (primarily inbound
international trading vessels) in Victoria which will (hopefully) be
useful for archaeologists in aiding identification and dating of bottles
from terrestrial sites in Australia (the International Shipwreck Bottle
Collection Reference Project). The shipwreck sites date from 1853 - 1908,
and the artefacts are held both by public institutions (eg Heritage
Victoria & local/regional museums) and by private custodians. There is
certainly scope for similar artefact research on shipwreck assemblages in
Heritage Victoria's collections, including ceramics, fastenings, buttons,
and other personal effects, and we always welcome this type of research by
undergraduate & post-grad students.

In addition, in 2003 two searchable on-line databases were created for
artefacts from the SS City of Launceston (1965) and PS Clonmel (1841). These can be accessed on Heritage Victoria's website at
www.heritage.vic.gov.au.

Cheers
Cass

_________________________________
Cassandra Philippou
Maritime Heritage Unit
Heritage Victoria
Level 17, Nauru House
80 Collins Street
Melbourne
Victoria 3000

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Visit these sites!
http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au
http://www.aima.iinet.net.au
http://www.archaeologyweek.com