Archaeological Geovisualization Underwater

Summary

New research continues to challenge the "Beringia" explanation of the peopling of the Americas. During the Last Glacial Maximum sea level in the Gulf of Alaska was approximately 100 – 120 meters lower than present. Vast areas of adjacent coastline extending south along the Pacific Northwest Coast may have been deglaciated beginning about 16,000 BP; providing a coastal corridor for people using watercraft to move south along the coast from eastern Beringia. The focus, now, is locating a coastal migration route. How would one locate early New World archaeological sites underwater?

Underwater surveying techniques, developed in collaboration with related scientific disciplines such as Geophysics and Oceanography, continue to improve the spatial understanding of undersea environments. I refer to this next generation of marine archaeology as "underwater archaeological geovisualization" (UAG).

This paper outlines research focused on new underwater remote sensing technologies, incorporating new computing sciences; such as three-dimensional (3D) imaging, virtual reality (VR), geographic information systems (GIS) and agent-based and virtual modeling, in conjunction with applied technical engineering; developing new underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).

UAG will allow archaeologists to both predict and locate submerged ancient occupational sites as well as investigate these in a way not previously possible.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 19957