A New Lease on Life for Submerged Paleolithic Sites?

     "The rarity of Pleistocene hunter-gatherer sites along the coasts of Western Europe led to a virtual consensus among archaeologists in the late 20th century that Palaeolithic people largely ignored this type of environment" (Bicho and Haws 2008 pg 2166).  This quote may reference Western Europe yet the same could be said of Paleolithic people in countless coastal areas worldwide.  Is there truly a paucity of Pleistocene sites along coasts or have we just not yet located them?

    While Bicho and Haws' article argues for the use of coastal resources in Pleistocene times, their article also brings to the forefront that coastal sites are present; just not "viewable".  As Bicho and Haws state in the conclusion of their article, "most Palaeolithic coastal sites are now-submerged" (Bicho and Haws 2008 pg 2173).  This is as true in Portugal as it is in the United States.

   However, two researchers from Mercyhurst College are working with NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) and their underwater grants program to open up the study and understanding of landforms of long flooded coastal areas.  What these researchers, James Adovasio and C. Andrew Hemmings hope to do is open to "view" (in a manner of speaking) the expanses of coastline that have been submerged since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).

    They started their fieldwork in 2007 studying the submerged coastline west of St. Petersburg, Florida.  Using sub-bottom profiling and side-scan sonar, their team looks, "at everything from the LGM beach to the modern shoreline...for things like prehistoric river channels, sinkholes, and the like" (Largent 2011 pg 8).  Their expectation is to locate late Pleistocene sites at submerged areas they have targeted because, "early occupation sites on shore were almost invariably chosen with ready access to freshwater and toolstone (Largent 2011 pg 9).  To date Adovasio and Hemmings have located the ancient river channels of the Suwannee and St. Marks rivers as they once flowed across the continental shelf off of western Florida.  As well, they have found submerged chert outcrops (Largent 2011 pg 8).  And where rivers and chert are found on dry land in Florida, Hemmings says places such as those are where, "massive Paleo sites" (Largent 2011 pg 9) are found.

    There naturally are complications to intensive underwater archaeology.  Deep dives, "limited air supplies and the need to avoid decompression", and expenses (Largent 2011 pg 9), combine to contrict fieldwork.  What this team has found so far may seem trivial to many, however; every advance that comes from their work is able to help other researchers elsewhere to possibly identify characteristics that, while presently submerged, when dry may have been the site(s) of any number of Paleolithic people.  This research can only enhance and expand on what we already know about Paleolithic people and how they used coastal areas.


Bicho, N., and J. Haws
           2008 At the land's end: Marine resources and the importance of fluctuation in the coastline in the
           prehistoric hunter-gatherer economy of Portugal. Quaternary Science Reviews 27:2166-2175.

Largent, F.
           2011 Prehistoric florida submerged. Mammoth Trumpet 26(1):7-10.