Archaeology and palaeolandscapes of the continental shelf: An introduction

The past decade has seen a rapidly widening interest in archaeological and scientific exploration of the submerged landscapes that were flooded by sea-level rise at the end of the Last Glacial period. That interest is shared by many different disciplines and constituencies, including archaeologists who recognise the potential significance of these underwater archives to improved understandings of world prehistory, palaeoclimatologists interested in modelling sea-level change, and government agencies charged by national and international legislation with managing the underwater cultural heritage in the light of expanding industrial exploitation of the seabed. This introductory chapter sets out the background to these developments and the role of the European network – SPLASHCOS – in promoting awareness of this new agenda to the many scientific disciplines involved in underwater research, government agencies, commercial and industrial interests, and a wider public. Here we set out the major themes that we have used to structure the chapters in this volume, ranging across techniques and strategies of underwater investigation, examples of underwater archaeological excavations, reconstructions of underwater landscapes, the role of the continental shelf in shaping patterns of early human dispersal and geographical expansion, and issues of training, outreach and management. Examples are drawn widely from Europe and other parts of the world. We summarise the individual chapters, identify their inter-relationships with each other and with the themes of which they form a part, and highlight their wider significance.