This open access volume provides for the first time a comprehensive description and scientific evaluation of underwater archaeological finds referring to human occupation of the continental shelf around the coastlines of Europe and the Mediterranean when sea levels were lower than present. These are the largest body of underwater finds worldwide, amounting to over 2500 find spots, ranging from individual stone tools to underwater villages with unique conditions of preservation. The material reviewed here ranges in date from the Lower Palaeolithic period to the Bronze Age and covers 20 countries bordering all the major marine basins from the Atlantic coasts of Ireland and Norway to the Black Sea, and from the western Baltic to the eastern Mediterranean. The finds from each country are presented in their archaeological context, with information on the history of discovery, conditions of preservation and visibility, their relationship to regional changes in sea-level and coastal geomorphology, and the institutional arrangements for their investigation and protection. Editorial introductions summarise the findings from each of the major marine basins. There is also a final section with extensive discussion of the historical background and the legal and regulatory frameworks that inform the management of the underwater cultural heritage and collaboration between offshore industries, archaeologists and government agencies. The volume is based on the work of COST Action TD0902 SPLASHCOS, a multi-disciplinary and multi-national research network supported by the EU-funded COST organisation (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). The primary readership is research and professional archaeologists, marine and Quaternary scientists, cultural-heritage managers, commercial and governmental organisations, policy makers, and all those with an interest in the sea floor of the continental shelf and the human impact of changes in climate, sea-level and coastal geomorphology.
"There are 27 chapters written by 89 international collaborators, which are supported with an impressive number of high-quality visuals. ... this volume represents one of the most monumental publications on continental-shelf archaeology published to date, and will stay significant to researchers and students for years to come." (Katarina Jerbic, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 50 (1), 2021)
"The volume does a good job highlighting the extent and preservation of the underwater archaeological record, with the results from both Denmark and Israel providing stand-out examples of what can be achieved. But the volume also highlights the potential of the records in other countries that border the European coastline where the records are not so well investigated. These examples will inspire archaeologists in these European countries interested in coastlines ... ." (Simon Holdaway, The Holocene, Vol. 31 (10), 2021)
Chapter 1. Prehistoric Archaeology of the European Continental Shelf: Introduction and Overview (Geoff Bailey, Nena Galanidou, Hans Peeters, Hauke Jöns and Moritz Mennenga).- Part I: The Baltic and Scandinavia.- Chapter 2. The Baltic and Scandinavia: Introduction (Geoff Bailey and Hauke Jöns).- Chapter 3. Denmark: Mesolithic Coastal Landscapes Submerged (Geoff Bailey, Søren Andersen and Thijs Maarleveld).- Chapter 4. Sweden: Submerged Landscapes of the Early Mesolithic (Björn Nilsson, Anton Hansson and Arne Sjöström).- Chapter 5. Germany: Submerged Sites in the South-Western Baltic and the Wadden Sea (Hauke Jöns, Friedrich Lüth, Svea Mahlstedt, Julia Goldhammer, Sönke Hartz and Hans-Joachim Kühn).- Chapter 6. Norway: Submerged Stone Age from a Norwegian Perspective (Håkon Glørstad, Jostein Gundersen, Frode Kvalø, Pål Nymoen, David Simpson and Birgitte Skar).- Part II: The Atlantic Margin and the North Sea.- Chapter 7. The Atlantic Margin and the North Sea: Introduction (Hans Peeters, Fraser Sturt and Kieran Westley).- Chapter 8. The Netherlands: Probing into the Submerged Prehistoric Archaeology, Landscapes and Palaeontology of the Dutch Continental Shelf (Hans Peeters and Luc Amkreutz).- Chapter 9. Belgium: Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology in the Intertidal and Subtidal Zones of the North Sea (Marnix Pieters, Tine Missiaen, Maikel De Clercq, Ine Demerre and Sven Van Haelst).- Chapter 10. Great Britain: The Intertidal and Underwater Archaeology of Britain’s Submerged Landscapes (Geoff Bailey, Garry Momber, Martin Bell, Louise Tizzard, Karen Hardy, Lauren Tidbury, Jonathan Benjamin, Andrew Bicket and Alex Hale).- Chapter 11. Ireland: Submerged Prehistoric Sites and Landscapes (Kieran Westley and Peter Woodman).- Chapter 12. France: Submerged Prehistory on Atlantic and Mediterranean Coasts (Cyrille Billard, Marie-Yvane Daire and Chloé Martin, with contributions by Yves Billaud, Catherine Bizien-Jaglin, Antoine Chancerel, Dominique Cliquet, Nathalie Fourment, Henri Gandois, Briagell Huet, Marine Laforge, Loïc Langouët, Luc Laporte, Jean-Marc Large, Frédéric Leroy, Elias López-Romero, Léopold Maurel, Jean-Laurent Monnier, Pierre Régaldo, Anne Ropars, Pierre Stéphan and Luc Vallin).- Chapter 13. Spain: Underwater Exploration on a Narrow Continental Shelf (Pablo Arias).- Chapter 14. Portugal: Intertidal Archaeology and Submerged Coastal Landscapes (Nuno Bicho, Leandro Infantini and João Marreiros).- Part III: The Mediterranean and the Black Sea.- Chapter 15. The Mediterranean and the Black Sea: Introduction (Nena Galanidou and Geoff Bailey).- Chapter 16. Italy: The Archaeology of Palaeoshorelines, Coastal Caves and Seafaring Connections (Elena Flavia Castagnino Berlinghieri, Fabrizio Antonioli and Geoff Bailey).- Chapter 17. Malta: Submerged Landscapes and Early Navigation (Timmy Gambin).- Chapter 18. Croatia: Submerged Prehistoric Sites in a Karstic Landscape (Irena Radić Rossi, Ivor Karavanić and Valerija Butorac).- Chapter 19. Greece: Unstable Landscapes and Underwater Archaeology (Nena Galanidou, Katerina Dellaporta and Dimitris Sakellariou).- Chapter 20. Bulgaria: Sea-Level Change and Submerged Settlements on the Black Sea (Preslav Peev, Helen Farr, Vladimir Slavchev, Michael J Grant, Jon Adams and Geoff Bailey).- Chapter 21. The Ukraine: In Search of Submerged Late Palaeolithic Sites on the North-Western Black Sea Shelf (Sergey Kadurin, Valentina Yanko-Hombach and Olena Smyntyna).- Chapter 22. Cyprus: The Submerged Final Palaeolithic of Aspros Dive Site C (Albert J Ammerman).- Chapter 23. Israel: Submerged Prehistoric Sites and Settlements on the Mediterranean Coastline—the Current State of the Art (Ehud Galili, Baruch Rosen, Mina Weinstein Evron, Israel Hershkovitz, Vered Eshed and Liora Kolska Horwitz).- Part IV: The Legal, Historical and Industrial Context of Underwater Heritage.- Chapter 24. The Legal, Historical and Industrial Context of Underwater Heritage: Introduction (Hans Peeters, Geoff Bailey and Nena Galanidou).- Chapter 25. Continental Shelf Archaeology and International Law (Sarah Dromgoole).- Chapter 26. Seabed Infrastructure Projects, Underwater Cultural Heritage and The Environmental Assessment Process: The UK Example (Christopher Pater).- Chapter 27. Beam Trawls and Bones: A Reflection on Dutch Fisheries (Thijs J. Maarleveld).- Appendix.
Geoff Bailey is Anniversary Professor of Archaeology Emeritus at the University of York, Visiting Professor at Flinders University, Australia, and Chairman of the EU COST Action 'Submerged Prehistoric Archaeology and Landscapes of the Continental Shelf' (SPLASHCOS). He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1976 and has held Faculty appointments at Cambridge, where he was also Fellow and Senior Tutor of Clare Hall, and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where he was Professor of Archaeology and Head of Department from 1996 to 2004, before taking up the Anniversary Chair at the University of York. His research interests are in the archaeology of coastlines, submerged landscapes and Quaternary landscape evolution, and he has led major projects in Australia, Greece, Saudi Arabia and the UK. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Member of the Academia Europaea and Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2017 he was awarded the King AbdulAziz Prize for a book on Saudi Arabia in a non-Arabic language, and the Europa Prize of the Prehistoric Society for contributions to European Prehistory.
Nena Galanidou is Professor of Archaeology at the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Crete. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1996 and continued with a post-doctoral Research Fellowship at Clare Hall to 1999. She is an expert on lithic technology and archaeological computing. Her research interests are Stone Age archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, archaeological history and method, and public archaeology. Dr Galanidou has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Greece and Croatia and has participated in various international projects on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Southeast Europe. She is currently Director of the multidisciplinary Lesbos Lower Palaeolithic Project and of the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago Project. Both projects are concerned with the history of Palaeolithic occupation and its relationship to sea-level change in regions where offshore islands were once part of their neighbouring mainland, in Anatolia and Greece respectively. Dr Galanidou is a member of the EU SPLASHCOS research network and was the Greek archaeological representative on the European Marine Board’s SUBLAND Working Group for European Continental Shelf Prehistoric Research.
Hauke Jöns is Head of the Culture Science Department and Director of the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, as well as Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at Rostock University. He received his PhD in 1993 and his Habilitation in 2000 at the University of Kiel, Germany. He is an expert in diachronic settlement and landscape research, with special interests in human adaptations to changing coastal environments, archaeometallurgy and the management of the coastal archaeological heritage. He was a member of the steering group of the interdisciplinary Research Programme SINCOS (Sinking Coasts) which published in 2014 on the dynamics of the Littorina Transgression on the Southwest Baltic Coast and its impact on the Mesolithic and Neolithic societies of the region. He has also conducted research on submerged sites of the late Mesolithic Ertebølle culture in the Western Baltic and the Zwischenahner Meer and on the archaeology of the German Wadden Sea. In addition, he has led a project on the settlement and land use of the Western group of the Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture. Dr Jöns is the German archaeological substitute representative on the EU SPLASHCOS Management Committee and is the coordinator of the web-based SPLASHCOS Viewer.
Hans Peeters is Associate Professor at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen. He is a specialist in the archaeology of hunter-gatherers, landscape archaeology and lithic technology. He received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2007 for his study on Mesolithic-Neolithic land-use dynamics and innovative approaches to heritage management issues in the Dutch Flevoland polders. He has led major multi-disciplinary research projects on Mesolithic and Neolithic excavations and landscape studies in the Netherlands. Dr Peeters also coordinated an international working group named the “North Sea Prehistory Research and Management Framework” (NSPRMF), the results of which were published in 2009, and evaluated and upgraded in 2019 under his direction. Dr Peeters is the Netherlands archaeology representative on the EU SPLASHCOS Management Committee and continues to play an important advisory role in the field of heritage management of prehistoric archaeology and landscapes, both on land and offshore.
Moritz Mennenga is Scientific Associate and head of the unit for ‘Excavation Technique and Geoinformatics’ at the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, since 2015. He received his PhD at the University of Kiel in 2017 for research on Middle-Neolithic settlement structures and houses of the Funnel Beaker Culture in north-western Germany with the focus on the area between the rivers Elbe and Ems. Additional research interests are the spatial and GIS analysis of distributions of ancient human remains and the reconstruction of historical landscapes. He leads projects on Neolithic and ritual landscapes in the North Sea coastal region including investigations of settlements and megalithic graves buried beneath peat in the Elbe-Weser triangle. Dr Mennenga is responsible for the data-management of the SPLASHCOS Viewer and has created most of the distribution maps in this volume.
This open access volume provides for the first time a comprehensive description and scientific evaluation of underwater archaeological finds referring to human occupation of the continental shelf around the coastlines of Europe and the Mediterranean when sea levels were lower than present. These are the largest body of underwater finds worldwide, amounting to over 2500 find spots, ranging from individual stone tools to underwater villages with unique conditions of preservation. The material reviewed here ranges in date from the Lower Palaeolithic period to the Bronze Age and covers 20 countries bordering all the major marine basins from the Atlantic coasts of Ireland and Norway to the Black Sea, and from the western Baltic to the eastern Mediterranean. The finds from each country are presented in their archaeological context, with information on the history of discovery, conditions of preservation and visibility, their relationship to regional changes in sea-level and coastal geomorphology, and the institutional arrangements for their investigation and protection. Editorial introductions summarise the findings from each of the major marine basins. There is also a final section with extensive discussion of the historical background and the legal and regulatory frameworks that inform the management of the underwater cultural heritage and collaboration between offshore industries, archaeologists and government agencies.
The volume is based on the work of COST Action TD0902 SPLASHCOS, a multi-disciplinary and multi-national research network supported by the EU-funded COST organisation (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). The primary readership is research and professional archaeologists, marine and Quaternary scientists, cultural-heritage managers, commercial and governmental organisations, policy makers, and all those with an interest in the sea floor of the continental shelf and the human impact of changes in climate, sea-level and coastal geomorphology.