Reclaimed Anchors in Urban Contexts: Case Studies from Buenos Aires, Puerto Madryn, and Puerto Pirámides (Argentina)

Abstract

Anchors are one of the most important nautical elements throughout the history of navigation. Research in maritime archaeology has dealt with their origin, development, characteristics, performance, and their image portrayed in different materials. On occasions, anchors are discarded or lost, and then reclaimed to be exhibited in different places, such as institutions, stores, or public space. This paper studies 43 cases of reclaimed anchors in three urban contexts of Argentina: Puerto Madryn, Puerto Pirámides (north-central Patagonia), and the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires. Through morphological analysis, interviews, and enquiry of documental sources we aim to explore the primary nautical context of the anchors, and to analyse their new environments and interpretations about the object’s meaning. We conceive this practice as a global phenomenon, replicated locally with specific implications. Anchors are regarded in different and even contradictory ways – as ornaments, vehicles of memories, and markers of a maritime cultural landscape.