Transient legacies of the past: Historical Archaeology in the Intertidal Zone

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Transient legacies of the past: Historical Archaeology in the Intertidal Zone," at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In recent years, historic shipwrecks and settlement sites have been exposed by coastal erosion in the intertidal zone at an increasing rate – a trend observable on a global scale. The possibilities for in situ preservation and study are limited by the tidal circle, currents, destruction caused by erosion, but also the absence for protocols and resources in dealing with threatened heritage in this difficult terrain, where neither methods of terrestrial nor underwater archaeology could be fully applied. The topic is interlinked with the broader environmental question of how and to which extent geomorphological changes affecting the archaeological heritage are influenced by the changing climate and sea-level rise. Moreover, archaeological heritage in the intertidal zone also draws great public interest as a consequence of its visibility and immediate accessibility. Both natural and anthropogenic impacts on such archaeological sites pose a challenge for historic monuments protection authorities.