John K. Rawls, MA

Senior Marine Archaeologist/ Director, Marine Archaeology Division

            John K. Rawls, Senior Marine Archaeologist and director of ESI’s Marine Archaeology Division, came to Earth Search, Inc., in 2006.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology in 1997 from Northwestern State University (NSU) in Natchitoches, Louisiana focusing on Louisiana prehistoric and historic archaeology and a Master of Arts degree in History and Historical Archaeology in 2004 from University of West Florida (UWF) in Pensacola, Florida.  His research interests include southeast prehistoric archaeology, colonial archaeology, underwater archaeology, historic ship construction and architecture, and remote sensing.  In addition, Mr. Rawls is committed to safe scientific diving practices.  Mr. Rawls meets the standards of the professional guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Interior and is a certified member of the Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA) (2006).

            After completing undergraduate studies in May 1997 , Mr. Rawls accepted a position as a field technician with Panamerican Consultants, Inc. in Memphis Tennessee in the fall of 1997.  His experience there included field projects throughout the southeast including Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.  In 1999, Rawls began employment with Panamerican Maritime, LLC, a branch of Panamerican Consultants in Memphis, Tennessee.  There he gained maritime archaeological experience as a technician on remote sensing and archaeological diving projects.  These projects include operations in the Tennessee River, Tennessee on the USS Undine investigations and in the Atchafalaya River, Louisiana for the investigations of the USS Colonel Kinsman.  He also worked offshore of Long Island, New York identifying possible submerged cultural resources.

            In 2000, Mr. Rawls was accepted into the graduate program in History/Historical Archaeology at UWF.  His studies concentrated on Gulf Coast maritime history and underwater archaeology.  His master’s thesis, “Time and Tide Wait for No One: The History and Archaeology of the British Bark, Rhoda (8ES1899)” researches a late-nineteenth century shipwreck site in Pensacola Bay, Florida.  While in the graduate program at UWF, Mr. Rawls participated on vaorius shipwreck sites including the excavations of the 1705 Spanish shipwreck, Nuestra Senora del Rosario (8ES1905), the 1856 steamboat wreck of the SS. Florida (8GU109), the “Snapper Wreck” (8SR1001), a late-nineteenth century snapper fisher; and “Hamilton’s Wreck” (8ES2238), an early-twentieth century fishing yacht. 

            In 2002, Mr. Rawls returned to Panamerican Consultants, Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee and gained more professional experience as a remote sensing specialist and archaeological diver.  He operated as a remote-sensing specialist utilizing a SeaScan side-scan sonar and an Overhauser sensor magnetometer offshore of Virginia Beach, Virginia.  In the fall of 2002, he was employed as an archaeological diver in Milwaukee Harbor, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and in Lower New York Harbor, New York assessing acoustic and magnetic targets.

            In 2003, Mr. Rawls continued employment with Panamerican Consultants, Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee as a maritime archaeologists/archaeological diver in the underwater investigations of the CSS Georgia (1864), a Confederate ironclad, in the Savanna River, Savannah, Georgia.  There he performed the challenging tasks of identifying components of the wreck and delineating the wreck site.

            In April and May of 2005, Mr. Rawls returned to Panamerican Consultants, Inc., and furthered his experience as an archaeological diver.  There he performed archaeological diver evaluations of side-scan and magnetic targets along Egmont Shoal in Florida.

            In February 2006, Mr. Rawls accepted a position at Earth Search Inc. in New Orleans Louisiana as a marine projects manager.  Mr. Rawls is currently the acting director of the Earth Search, Inc.-Marine Archaeology Division to provide complete services for submerged cultural resources management.  His most recent fieldwork includes a Phase II diver evaluation of magnetic anomalies in Lake Pontchartrain, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana and remote sensing survey and diver evaluations for the possible remains of the New Camelia (1920).  Mr. Rawls is currently scheduled to conduct a submerged cultural resources remote sensing survey for a 27-mile pipeline in West Cote Blanche Bay extending offshore to the Gulf of Mexico.