Micro-Regional Approaches to Underwater Landscapes and Submerged Archaeological Sites

Summary

Some of the most pivotal questions in human prehistory hinge on archaeological sites that are now under water. While the discovery of such sites presents technological challenges, they offer unique potentials for investigating time periods, cultures, and adaptations that are only poorly known on land. Unfortunately, underwater research rarely produces the systematic coverage of space and material culture that is needed to conduct anthropologically relevant research.

The investigation of micro-regions as a means to elucidate economic and social relations in the past has been widely adopted in terrestrial archaeology, and yet is arguably even better suited to submerged settings. By defining specific and comparable localities as the target for intensive research, a micro-regional approach can provide the framework for generating the needed systematic coverage of space and material, while still operating within the physical and financial constraints of underwater research. In this paper, the application of a micro-regional approach is illustrated as applied to the study of the Late Paleoindian occupation of the Alpena-Amberley Ridge beneath modern Lake Huron.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Geoarchaeology of Submerged, Intertidal, And Wetland Places: Advances In Method And Theory of Prehistoric Archaeology Underwater - 2015   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage