By James Heinz
Most members of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society are amateur marine history enthusiasts. None of us have ever been historians or underwater archeologists with doctorate degrees. The only doctor on our Board of Directors was our outgoing president, Carl Eisenberg, and he was a pediatric nephrologist.
But now the WMHS Board of Directors has a member who is a full PhD underwater explorer. It is my pleasure to introduce to you Dr. Ashley Lemke, underwater archeologist.
Todd and Kathie Gordon and I met her when we took a class she taught this past fall at UW Milwaukee, entitled Underwater Archeology. We enjoyed the class, and were allowed to contribute our expertise, like when I borrowed a classic hard hat diving suit from DESCO corporation and brought it in to show the class, who were suitably impressed by the suit.
We were so impressed that Todd asked her to join the WMHS board. She took pity on us and agreed to join. Her appointment was confirmed in January. Her duties will be light, as will her compensation.
During that class she taught us that underwater archeology is divided into several sub-disciplines. These include maritime archeology, which is the study of ports, shipwrecks, and lighthouses.
Dr. Lemke is a student of submerged prehistoric sites, prehistoric sites that were once on land but are now submerged. If this sounds familiar, I wrote a blog article about her successful search for submerged ancient hunting structures on the floor of Lake Huron.
Dr. Lemke pointed out that while underwater archeology is often more expensive and difficult than dry land archeology, it enables archeologists to find sites that have not been disturbed by agricultural or urban development.
Sometimes her field of study overlaps with marine archeology, as in the case she taught us about how the excavation of a sunken Dutch merchant ship from the 1600s off the coast of South Africa revealed ancient stone tools from 1.5 million years ago. This puzzled archeologists until they realized that the place where the merchant ship sank had been dry land 1.5 million years ago and the ship had coincidentally sunk on top of an ancient camp site.
Ashley Lemke has always been interested in history. Born in Bremerton, Wash., she grew up watching the History Channel, back when there was history on the History Channel. Her sister took an Anthropology course, and that motivated Ashley to do the same. She said, “I always wanted to be an archaeologist.”
She started her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at Western Washington University and then finished it with a minor in Classical Civilizations at the University of Texas-Austin. Her BA honors thesis was on historical cemeteries.
She then went to the University of Michigan where she attended their direct to PhD program. She took time to participate in the excavation of a mammoth kill site in Texas and excavations at sites in Germany, Spain, and Romania and to participate for two seasons on a side scan and sub-bottom profiler sonar search for submerged Clovis culture sites on the edge of the Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. She also participated in the examination of a site with fossil bones in 80 feet of water off the coast of North Carolina that was discovered by divers looking for ancient shark teeth.
At the University of Michigan she met Dr. John O’Shea. Dr. O’Shea’s family owned a cabin in Northern Michigan near to the site of shipwreck. He witnessed the looting of this shipwreck, and became determined to prevent such acts by becoming a marine archaeologist[AL1] .
In another example of the overlapping of the two disciplines of archeology, the two of them combined his hunt for shipwrecks in Lake Huron with her search for prehistoric submerged sites. Archeologists had long theorized that there had been a land bridge across Lake Huron in prehistoric times and this was confirmed by a 2008 NOAA bathymetric survey which found just what they thought was there.
Her discovery of the ancient hunting structures on the bottom of Lake Huron resulted in her publishing a book on the subject and many articles.
Dr. Lemke is a certified SCUBA diver and ROV pilot
Dr. Lemke and Jake
She also reports being fairly immune to seasickness although on one occasion when she was not someone gave her what was supposed to be a seasickness pill, but turned out to be vertigo medication, which knocked her out for two days. Things like this may explain why most archeologists tend to stay on dry land.
Dr. Lemke with mammoth bones
For her Lake Huron research, Dr. Lemke received a grant from the National Science Foundation, and was allowed to use their Remotely Operated Vehicle, named “Jake”. Jake even has his own Facebook page (Jake ROV). She hopes to work with the UW Milwaukee Great Lakes Water Institute to obtain an ROV suitable for her next project: scanning the bottom of the newly established federal Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
Jake the ROV working on the bottom
Dr. Lemke is also one of the hosts of the Midwest Archeology Conference to be held in Milwaukee at the Hyatt Hotel from October 16-19, 2024, in conjunction with the annual convention of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association conference. See https://www.midwestarchaeology.org/annual-meeting/upcoming
I hope to bring you further news of her discoveries in the future. On behalf of the membership of WMHS, welcome aboard, Dr. Lemke.
James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
This story was originally posted on May 20, 2024.
