Tracing our ancestors at the bottom of the sea

A new European Marine Board report recommends exploration of sea-submerged settlements abandoned by our ancestors.


The report

More than 2,500 submerged prehistoric artefact assemblages, ranging in age from 5,000 to 300,000 years, have been found in the coastal waters and open sea basins around Europe. Only a few have been properly mapped by divers, or assessed for preservation or excavation. These remains contain information on ancient seafaring, and the social structures and exploitation technologies of coastal resources before the introduction of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. To understand how prehistoric people responded to changing sea level, researchers combine examinations of these deposits with palaeoclimate models, reconstructions of ice-cap and sea level curves, and sophisticated survey and excavation techniques.

a reply to: Hanslune

This has been a long time coming. You'd of thought it would be a no-brainer, but the wheels of discovery move pretty slowly.

a reply to: Hanslune

Interesting article! SnF! Always love seeing what discoveries are hiding underneath our noses.

Some of these drowned sites are tens of thousands of years old. From the progressive discovery and analysis of these prehistoric remains, a new scientific field has emerged, combining the expertise from many disciplines including archaeology, oceanography and the geosciences. The new field is called Continental Shelf Prehistoric Research.

Continental Shelf Prehistoric Research, now that's a mouth full! Glad to see the depths of our oceans are being explored!

Tracing our ancestors at the bottom of the sea



EMB Report on sea-submerged settlements abandoned by our ancestors

Chair of the European Marine Board, explains its importance: "our submerged cultural heritage is not a renewable resource; it is a unique irreplaceable cultural asset which can provide answers to many research questions about our prehistoric ancestors, landscapes and climate.

This rapidly evolving research field is the focus of a new European Marine Board (EMB) position paper titled 'Land Beneath the Waves: Submerged Landscapes and Sea-Level Change.' The paper describes how during the successive ice ages of the last 1 million years...

Phys.org

Here's a link to the research paper for anyone interested in reading it:

Land Beneath the Waves: Submerged landscapes and sea level change
Monday, October 06, 2014
Category: Research
The latest European Marine Board position paper is now published - Land beneath the waves: submerged landscapes and sea level change. This is a joint geoscience-humanities strategy for European Continental Shelf Prehistoric Research. More details.

Submerged Landscapes and Sea Level Change

a reply to: Hanslune

Interesting. After the release of the underwater google topology I have wondered if there are submerged islands that may have flooded causing populations dying out from tectonic movement.

S&F

Bloody fools have moved or under construction of the original link posted by the OP....

Can someone offer a better option or if that isn't possible.... Send the message that the folks that are responsible suck and need spanking.

a reply to: Sinter Klaas

Just checked and it is working fine now it was probably a temporary lapse, if you still cannot get to it see the post by JenntFrenzy who links to a few other reports on the same subject.

a reply to: Hanslune

Here's the corrected link.....

Tracing our ancestors at the bottom of the sea

With much of everything else already explored and cataloged, this "final frontier" of archeology and prehistoric research will offer students and explorers an almost entirely new, and very large, field of endeavor in which to work, publish, and analyze. Which will probably mean many more people making this field their professional and academic life, lots of exploration, many discoveries, and new theories and facts emerging. Not a bad way to spend a few years or decades, methinks.

a reply to: Hanslune

SLAYER69 will be so pleased.

originally posted by: Aleister
With much of everything else already explored and cataloged, this "final frontier" of archeology and prehistoric research will offer students and explorers an almost entirely new, and very large, field of endeavor in which to work, publish, and analyze. Which will probably mean many more people making this field their professional and academic life, lots of exploration, many discoveries, and new theories and facts emerging. Not a bad way to spend a few years or decades, methinks.

Marine Archaeology has always been extremely expensive but the recent development of much cheaper drones has made underwater study more feasible and successful.

On dry land much less than 1% of the surface of the earth has been properly surveyed and excavated and there are centuries of work to be done just on known sites. I'd say that 95-99% of the existing archaeological sites in the world have not even been found yet.

a reply to: Hanslune
I remember reading a thesis about how the earliest settlements must have been coastal because of the abundance of food, and ease of travel... whereas inland people had to hunt and follow migrations which was more difficult.

Imagine if all of our history was underwater! Everything would have to be rewritten!

originally posted by: Ridhya
a reply to: Hanslune
I remember reading a thesis about how the earliest settlements must have been coastal because of the abundance of food, and ease of travel... whereas inland people had to hunt and follow migrations which was more difficult.

Imagine if all of our history was underwater! Everything would have to be rewritten!

Hard to say the only problem with the coast is a difficulty finding fresh water, that is why all the first civs started on rivers. However HG groups appear to have the ability to form societies too and very early; Catalhuyuck and GT. At some point the coast becomes a good place but you need specialize technologies. There are indication some groups did that fairly early, people were catching tuna 42,000 years ago.

Early deep sea fishing for Tuna 42,000

In historic times when people started to notice anthropological classifications, It was found there was a fair mix of tribes that lived in various food environments (plains HG, desert, mtn, riverine, coastal, etc, etc) people did whatever worked.

a reply to: Hanslune
Not true! We have a long history of boiling salt water and collecting the vapour/salt separately! According to the eddas this was done by thralls. I know thats not 'ancient' but I think it comes from long before.

originally posted by: Hanslune
Marine Archaeology has always been extremely expensive but the recent development of much cheaper drones has made underwater study more feasible and successful.

On dry land much less than 1% of the surface of the earth has been properly surveyed and excavated and there are centuries of work to be done just on known sites. I'd say that 95-99% of the existing archaeological sites in the world have not even been found yet.

Amen to the cost factor. And let's face it, most archaeology in North America is being conducted by Cultural Resource Management firms in advance of development projects. There is little pure research going on because the money is not there to pay for it. Unless heritage geeks can convince their politicians that archaeology = votes...that ain't about to change.

originally posted by: Ridhya
a reply to: Hanslune
Not true! We have a long history of boiling salt water and collecting the vapour/salt separately! According to the eddas this was done by thralls. I know thats not 'ancient' but I think it comes from long before.

Distillation doesn't predate metallurgy, however.

Harte

On this video you will see how many man-made structures and megaliths are located in the Gulf of Mexico, this video is obtained from the underwater expedition in 2014.
Video rapidly several times to see the dimensions of the buildings, as the immersion itself lasted several hours. All filmed underwater robot at a depth of more than 2 kilometers.
Not far from the coast of Florida!

a reply to: Hanslune

There are Atlantis type places all over the world. If we have the means to access the sites and get information, then by all means let's do it.

a reply to: radrad999

Lots and lots of natural looking rocks

originally posted by: radrad999

On this video you will see how many man-made structures and megaliths are located in the Gulf of Mexico, this video is obtained from the underwater expedition in 2014.

I didn't see any man-made structures. Can I have my 40 minutes back now?

Harte

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Yep, it about the money, which has dried up a bit but enough is being done to keep things rolling at a reduced and a number of high profile studies continue to go on.

I forget the name of it but we are also suffering from the 'find and preserve' cycle, we have to preserve all the stuff we find especially sites and that takes up a large budget also....dang cannot forget the term for it.

Anyway the more we find the more we have to pay to conserve the sites.