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Langley grew up on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes in a history-loving family that had a personal connection to the sea. Her great-grandfather and his brothers were boat builders in Nova Scotia, and their tragic deaths in a hurricane perhaps explain why she feels she has “saltwater in her blood,” she said. Langley’s family loved to travel, and her first introduction to archaeology was in the American Southwest.
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Susan Langley, Maryland’s state underwater archaeologist, has spent more than three decades studying our underwater history. “I’ve been so lucky to be on great projects and to have visited the most interesting places that I might not have seen otherwise,” Langley said.
“I had an uncle in New Mexico whose home was on an active archaeological site. I was enthralled by the dig and seeing what they discovered.” One specific childhood memory sealed her fate: “In the 1960s, my dad would bring home copies of old National Geographic magazines. On one cover, I saw a pair of hands, a flashlight on one wrist, in deep water, lifting an urn.” That photograph of divers excavating an ancient shipwreck off the Yucatan Penin-
sula sparked a lifelong fascination. “I always knew I wanted to be an archaeologist. Now I knew I could be one underwater,” she said. Langley followed a path of rigorous academic training, specializing in anthropology, archaeology and maritime history. Before arriving in Maryland, she worked internationally, conducting excavations in Canada, Thailand and the Caribbean.
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Archaeologist uncovers shipwrecks By Tina Collins From the thousands of miles of waterways that crisscross Mar yland to the murky depths of the Chesapeake Bay, Dr. Susan Langley knows an underwater museum waits to be discovered. There, she excavates the past, carefully studying each site and artifact, piecing together stories that time and tide have sought to erase. For more than three decades, Langley has served as Maryland’s State Underwater Archaeologist at the Maryland Historical Trust, headquartered in Crownsville. The agency’s mission is to preserve and protect the state’s historical and cultural heritage. Maryland is one of a handful of states with a dedicated maritime archaeology program. This discipline combines the classic methods of terrestrial archaeology with marine science. A passionate advocate of conservation, Langley sees shipwrecks as living time capsules as well as evolving ecosystems that tell new stories with each passing tide. “I find an object, like a shoe, and I think about who wore these,” she said in an interview with the Beacon. “What was their life like? Where are their descendants now? That’s the humanity in the archaeology.”
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