Archaeologists have always been concerned with the relationship between the sites they study and the environments in which the sites are found. Since the end of the Pleistocene Era, sea levels have risen at least 120 meters, a factor that has considerable effect on many archaeological sites. Paleoshorelines and Prehistory: An Investigation of Method discusses the various processes that may affect coastal sites, or inland sites on shallow coastal plains, and presents a variety of methods that have been developed to reconstruct the shoreline at the time the sites were occupied. The focus of the chapters is on processes affecting coastal sites in the Americas, although the methods discussed are applicable to archaeologists worldwide. The book will also guide archaeologists in designing surveys to discover site locations, whether these are now inland or underwater. All archaeologists and students in archaeology and geology will find a tremendous wealth of useful information in this remarkable volume.

The Archaeology of Prehistoric Coastlines offers a conspectus of recent work on coastal archaeology examining the various ways in which hunter-gatherers and farmers across the world exploited marine resources such as fish, shellfish and waterfowl in prehistory. Changes in sea levels and the balance of marine ecosystems have altered coastal environments significantly over the last ten thousand years and the contributors assess the impact of these changes on the nature of human settlement and subsistence. An overview of coastal archaeology as a developing discipline is followed by ten case studies from a wide variety of places including Scandinavia, Japan, Tasmania and New Zealand, Peru, South Africa and the United States.

This book presents an overview of the exciting new developments in underwater research in North America, ranging from new approaches for discovering submerged sites to an assessment of how these findings challenge the understanding of the North American past. Archaeological sites preserved on the world’s continental shelves are relevant to a wide range of major research questions and their importance increases with the heightened awareness of climate change and rising modern sea levels. Once thought lost forever, these sites survive underwater, preserved from the ravages of modern farming and development. To investigate the submerged landscapes, archaeologists use many of the same technologies developed for discovery of shipwrecks but, couple them with anthropological and environmental models to identify and study the way of life of people residing in these ancient lands. In this book, leading figures associated with submerged site exploration share an emphasis on the conduct and results of underwater research. It will be a fascinating read for advanced students of Archaeology, History and Environmental Studies. This volume was originally published as a special issue of The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology.

65,000 years ago, modern humans arrived in Australia, having navigated more than 100 km of sea crossing from southeast Asia. Since then, the large continental islands of Australia and New Guinea, together with smaller islands in between, have been connected by land bridges and severed again as sea levels fell and rose. Along with these fluctuations came changes in the terrestrial and marine environments of both land masses. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea reviews and assembles the latest findings and ideas on the archaeology of the Australia-New Guinea region, the world's largest island-continent. In 42 new chapters written by 77 contributors, it presents and explores the archaeological evidence to weave stories of colonisation; megafaunal extinctions; Indigenous architecture; long-distance interactions, sometimes across the seas; eel-based aquaculture and the development of techniques for the mass-trapping of fish; occupation of the High Country, deserts, tropical swamplands and other, diverse land and waterscapes; and rock art and symbolic behaviour. Together with established researchers, a new generation of archaeologists present in this Handbook one, authoritative text where Australia-New Guinea archaeology now lies and where it is heading, promising to shape future directions for years to come.

Presenting the most current research and thinking on prehistoric archaeology in the Southeast, this volume reexamines some of Florida’s most important Paleoindian sites and discusses emerging technologies and methods that are necessary knowledge for archaeologists working in the region today. Using new analytical methods, contributors explore fresh perspectives on sites including Old Vero, Guest Mammoth, Page-Ladson, and Ray Hole Spring. They discuss the role of hydrology—rivers, springs, and coastal plain drainages—in the history of Florida’s earliest inhabitants. They address both the research challenges and the unique preservation capacity of the state’s many underwater sites, suggesting solutions for analyzing corroded lithic artifacts and submerged midden deposits. Looking towards future research, archaeologists discuss strategies for finding additional pre-Clovis and Clovis-era sites offshore on the southeastern continental shelf. The search is important, these essays show, because Florida’s prehistoric sites hold critical data for the debate over the nature and timing of the first human colonization of the Western Hemisphere.