Theory at the Waterline: Advances in Submerged Precontact Landscape Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "*SE The State of Theory in Southeastern Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The southeastern United States encompasses the greatest extent of submerged continental shelf in North America along with the greatest abundance of documented submerged precontact sites. It also includes some of the earliest documented precontact sites in North America, some of which are also submerged today. A substantial component of the early archaeological record in this region, and North America broadly, lies submerged offshore. Documented submerged site abundance moreover indicates high potential for offshore site preservation. While site identification remains a significant challenge, the efforts needed to meet this challenge are justified by the contribution of such sites to our overall understanding of the archaeological record. In this paper, we will review advances in theory and methodology designed to assist in this search. These advances are chosen to both assist in submerged precontact site identification, and more importantly, to articulate these sites with the onshore archaeological record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• *SE The State of Theory in Southeastern Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38311.0