Hundreds of thousands of artifacts have been raised from the shipwreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge since full excavation began in 2005. Kimberly Kenyon of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology is the lead archaeologist for the site of Blackbeard’s infamous flagship, formerly the slave ship La Concorde. Ms. Kenyon will share her experiences and insights into what the artifacts from this significant archaeological discovery reveal about the Golden Age of Piracy and how it intersected with the transatlantic slave trade.

About the speaker:

Kimberly Kenyon is the NC Office of State Archaeology’s head conservator and principal investigator for archaeological site 31CR314, La Concorde/Queen Anne’s Revenge. She is a graduate of the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University, where she completed her MA in Anthropology. Previously, she earned a BA in maritime studies from Texas A&M University at Galveston, minoring in both English and Anthropology. Kimberly has almost 20 years of experience as a conservator and archaeologist and has worked on maritime and terrestrial projects in Texas, North Carolina, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Turkey. She served as the head conservator and an archaeological diver for the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) in Bodrum, Turkey, and continues to serve INA as a research associate. Kim also teaches a graduate-level introduction to archaeological conservation course at East Carolina University. She currently serves on the NOAA Monitor National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council and the NC Preservation Consortium. Recent publications include “Queen Anne’s Revenge Coal Conundrum: Origins of Coal Found in Association with a Historic Shipwreck,” in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and a chapter in Dead Man’s Chest: Even More Archaeology of Piracy edited by Russell Skowronek and Charles Ewen.