Monica Chavez BROWNSVILLE- Pirates in Hollywood are portrayed as fun and adventurous voyagers, but a UTRGV professor said that is a misconception. In a third volume of a series of piracy books, a UTRGV professor uncovered 300 years of piracy history, all in effort to understand piracy in the grounds of archeology.
“So, the study of piracy gives us great insights into how they act,” Russell Skowronek, anthropology and history professor said. “But it also in turn gives us a reason to understand what makes us different than pirates.”
Skowronek released a book called “A Dead Man’s Chest” on Sept. 19. He co-authored the three volumes with archaeology professor Charles r. Ewen. Skowronek defined piracy as criminal behavior and remarked pirates are not like in popular movies. Skowronek said no matter where you’re from, if you have something they want, they might attack, and the key questions are where, how, and where they hide after. In the latest issue he covered piracy beginning in the 17th century to the 19th century but also talks about modern piracy.
“[…] We can document about 3000 attacks by pirates between 1690 and 1720, and we know, or I shouldn’t say we know, but we have documents that tell us that at least 400 pirates were hanged as a result of that,” Skowronek said. “But I can also tell you that between 2010 and 2022, there were 3000 pirate attacks in the world just now.”
Roseann Bacha-Garza, Community Historical Archaeology Project with School’s program director and anthropology lecturer, said Skowronek is an underwater archaeologist and studies Spanish colonial artifacts, like copper pots and ceramics expertise that is crucial to help uncover the details of a shipwreck in the valley.
“And so, what ties in his research that he’s been doing for decades on this topic has to do with in particular there was a shipwreck off south padre island that the state underwater archeologist from the Texas Historical Commission is working to research,” said Bacha.
Skowronek said their research team is based scattered in France, Ireland, Brazil and England and they study the material culture such as shipwrecks and artifacts. For more information on ‘A Dead Man’s Chest’ and how to acquire it visit upress.ufl.edu.
