Exploring Novel Potentials: OE Research on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Exploration-Forward Archaeology Through Community-Driven Research", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration has supported diverse research projects including underwater archaeology in the Great Lakes within the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (TBNMS). The Great Lakes have long been known to preserve historical shipwrecks in their cold, fresh, waters but OE research in Lake Huron has shown that their archaeological record goes back much farther, 9,500 years ago to the early Holocene. Submerged landscape archaeology in the Great Lakes is full of untapped potentials – offering both unique data and unique opportunities. For example, underwater archaeology on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge in Lake Huron has generated novel data including an ancient peat bog with environmental DNA, obsidian sourced to central Oregon, and the oldest dated constructed hunting architecture in North America. The unique archaeological and paleoenvironmental record preserved on the AAR is only matched by the unique opportunities for outreach and inclusion working with TBNMS and local communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Exploration-Forward Archaeology Through Community-Driven Research

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow