Exploring Paleolandscapes: A pre-requisite for finding submerged prehistoric sites to answer questions about some of the first people in the New World

 

“Exploring Paleolandscapes” is a project designed to identify places on the continental shelf where early prehistoric sites can be searched for and studied by additional research.

The objective is to gather high-resolution multibeam and subbottom profiling data to reconstruct seafloor bottom and subbottom stratigraphic conditions to identify exposed or shallow buried paleolandscapes near relict bay and inlet systems that are highly likely to contain early archaeological sites. These locations can be surveyed in future projects by underwater archaeologists and/or remotely operated vehicles and eventually these kinds of sites can answer questions about the first people that came into the eastern parts of the United States. The research fits within the realm of exploration not only for its groundbreaking, yet simple design for underwater prehistoric archaeological survey, but also because the data can be used by other researchers needing high resolution remotely sensed images, including local cultural resource managers and agency personnel

 

 

Some NOAA digital
reconstructions of the
offshore continental
shelf topography and
morphology