Ocean floor explored for clues to Ice Age settlement

Submitted by coldrum on Monday, 30 April 2007 Page Views: 704

Anthropologists in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are identifying new sites to study archaeology that are fathoms, not feet, under the surface. Anthropology professor Kevin McBride and doctoral candidate David Robinson say early submerged sites may yield evidence of how the earliest coastal residents lived and how they got here.

McBride, who is also director of research at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, was co-director and Robinson, a professional underwater archaeologist, one of the lead field archaeologists on a research expedition off Galveston, Texas, in March.

During the week-long expedition, scientists explored the submerged landscape around the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 115 miles off the Texas-Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. national marine sanctuary, was chosen because of its interesting geology and biology and its potential to contain preserved landforms with signs of some of America’s earliest inhabitants.

The tools of exploration included a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and state-of-the-art “telepresence” technology that enabled scientists and educators on shore to track from thousands of miles away what was going on in the Gulf.

At the height of the last glaciation, more than 20,000 years ago, the sea level was 350 to 400 feet lower than today. Looking for preserved elements of an old landscape, they surveyed 50-plus miles and found a six mile-long area about 300 feet under water that showed signs of what could be the intact remains of an old coastline and old river channels that would have led from shore to sea. It’s an area that holds promise for more detailed analysis, he says.

For more, see this link.

Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

<< Layers of history found at Tucson AZ mission dig

News

Bronze age life by airport runway >>