Connecting Survey and Fieldwork: Archaeology of the Core

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Based on a PhD research case study in the Croatian Adriatic, the paper demonstrates a step further into investigating coastal and submerged archaeology. Seabed mapping methods adopted from marine geology, such as side-scan and multi-beam sonar surveys and shallow water sub-bottom profiling are now considered the standard in maritime investigations. Whether on the basis of economics, politics, culture, or other reasonable grounds and unfortunately for continental shelf archaeology, this is often the moment when most fieldwork research stops. In the rare cases when the research is continued further, it involves diving and excavation. These investigations represent a stressful risk for both the archaeologists and the investors, not only because it involves diving and underwater excavations, but also because of the high likelihood of a negative archaeological result, regardless of the promising preliminary surveys. The paper proposes a research-based and tested interdisciplinary method: a combination of geological, environmental and archaeological fieldwork and laboratory techniques, under the colloquial term "Archaeology of the Core." Seabed coring provides an insight into the submerged environment, and of the cultural layers of a mapped site. Therefore, the risk of "empty" trenches is minimized, and the sediment contents represent a wholesome connection between archaeological survey and fieldwork.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23289