It is easy to forget the fact that the ability to access submerged sites has come relatively recently within the field of archaeology. Because of this, we often find ourselves seeking to drive the field forward through the development of new methods and technologies. While it will always be imperative that maritime archaeologists constantly seek to refine our methods, it is equally important to step back and consider our work within the larger context. Whether we are discussing paleoclimate modeling for prehistoric landscapes or the connected infrasturcture of inland waterways, the questions of how we interpret and apply our datasets run alongside our questions of past cultures and traditions. This paper will serve as an overview and introduction to this larger session on the many approaches we take to the wide variety of submerged landscapes and how we may build our theoretical understaning of these complex environments.

Human colonisation and dispersal out of Africa and to the far reaches of Europe followed major inter-glacial events as the climate warmed, but before the ice thawed and sea level rose. The relationship of the archaeology with the landscape that was left behind provides a cultural and datable resource that can be interrogated to provide a narrative around early societies and the landscape within which people lived. The rediscovery of such archaeological evidence in drowned landscapes can provide scientific markers that tell us about changes today and the future trajectory against which modern societies will have to adapt. This paper will look at the geological and geomorphological characteristics of submerged landscapes from the Red Sea and the English Channel. The methodologies required to investigate the different landscapes for different types of evidence at different scales will be outlined, as will the informed assumptions made when seeking archaeological material.

The carbonate platform and shallow continental shelf of the Yucatan Peninsula supported the rise of the northern lowland Maya and the earlier dispersal of Paleoamerican peoples. Exploration in the region’s now-submerged caves has revealed the remains of early human inhabitants as well as diverse and well preserved faunal and botanical assemblages. Growing interest in Maya maritime trade and interaction has necessitated a more holistic understanding of the interrelationships between humans and coastal processes, particularly in zones of low topographic relief. Research programs have focused on Pleistocene/Holocene sea-level rise and its implications via a range of methodologies and proxies. Efforts have involved the recovery and analysis of cave and shallow marine sediment cores, speleothems, and sub-bottom sonar data in addition to detailed mapping and in situ geological and paleontological sampling. The resulting reconstructions of paleoclimate, paleoecology, and overall paleocoastal geomorphology have proven integral to ongoing archaeological investigations on the Yucatan Peninsula.

What does it mean to be haunted in a space of recurrent disaster and destruction? During this program session, I will explore how understandings of death, grief, absence, and material/immaterial haunting have developed in Phuket, Thailand in the years since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. I will also examine where these understandings may manifest in relations between human beings, non-human beings, and the oceanic environment, and how these relationships continue to unfold, contract, break, and bend throughout the karst caves and windswept beaches of Southwestern Thailand in the age of anthropogenic climate change.

Throughout Caribbean prehistory, the construction of public architecture in ceremonial contexts is linked to expressions of status and power over local communities and resources. The appearance of these features such as mounds and ballcourts (bateyes) are largely associated with the Early to Late Ceramic Period – broadly defined by large-scale migration events and continuing impacts from Late Holocene climate change. The arrival of new cultural traditions and practices during this period alongside the physical impacts of atmospheric changes—wetter conditions, more intense storms, and rising sea-levels—likely posed a greater threat to existing resourcing strategies and settlement organizational patterns in coastal areas. Through its examination of Tierras Nuevas, a ceremonial complex site located directly on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, this paper provides a glimpse into how social institutions solidify their power on the coast through the construction or transformation of public spaces amidst periods of changing social and physical conditions.

The advancement of maritime cultural landscapes has grown every year since its inception, but its focus has often been focused on the historic landscape while neglecting the prehistoric landscape. There are however, attempts in rectifying this throughout the world. Research during the summer of 2023 on Saint Croix, USVI, was one such attempt, the results of which are discussed here. Being an island that has been continously occupied for at least 2,500 years, its coastline has a pleathora of precontact sites. Current mapping of these sites have them stopping at the tidelines, however with sea level changes it is likely that many of these sites extend offshore, as well as there being previously undiscovered submerged sites surrounding the islands. Such resources should be considered when discussing the maritime culturtal landscape of the island, and could be used as a reference for other islands in the Carribbean.

A NOAA grant funded project was designed to create baseline characterizations of the now-submerged paleolandscape associated with the shoreline stand ca. 8,000 yrs BP that would have been available to early human populations in the northwestern portion of the Gulf of Mexico’s (GOM) northwestern outer continental shelf (OCS). Several locations were sampled via vibracore in spring 2020. Graduate students at the University of West Florida analyzed shell-rich core samples as part of high-impact educational practices aimed at offering training in basic analytical techniques. This paper outlines the methods used in this study and preliminary results. Sizes and conditions of Rangia identified in the sample may indicate a natural population (i.e., not a human created midden). While Rangia predominate the processed samples, other species present in the cores (including botanical and faunal remains) may point to specific environmental conditions at these locations.

We examine the submerged continental shelf of southern California to expand our baseline knowledge of the local environment throughout the late Pleistocene and Holocene when humans migrated along the Pacific Coast. We investigate a now-submerged channel offshore the present-day San Dieguito Lagoon in Del Mar, California, focusing on the landscape during the Younger Dryas (YD) period. We use sub-bottom profiling to identify the YD paleoshoreline, now located between 57-60 m depth, about 3km out from the current coastline. The paleoshoreline is used to delineate the subaerial portion of the YD landscape and to constrain sea level during that time. We map the buried paleovalley extent and observe a layered channel along its northern side. Analysis of three sediment cores from the paleovalley, the deepest of which contains a beach-like deposit and terrestrial sediments dating to the YD, contributes to paleolandscape and climate interpretation.

Inland reservoirs provide a unique opportunity to study submerged terrestrial landscapes and archaeological sites. These reservoirs, with their annual in-fill and drawdown cycles, serve as natural laboratories that mimic the processes of marine transgression and regression on shorter timescales. Our study focuses on geophysical data collected from reservoirs in Oregon's Willamette Valley during summertime high water levels and later ground-truthed through terrestrial methods during winter drawdown. Through this approach, we have successfully identified paleolandforms and archaeological sites in drowned river valleys containing many known archaeological sites of various ages and materials. The characteristic geophysical signatures observed at known sites in these reservoirs can be applied to understand submerged environments elsewhere. Additionally, our findings facilitate the monitoring and management of landform and archaeological site changes resulting from repeated cycles of inundation and exposure. This cost-effective method has the potential to enhance offshore research, contributing to the scientific understanding of submerged sites.

The steel schooner-barge Madeira was among the first of Minnesota’s Lake Superior shipwrecks to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, in 1992. Easily accessible to divers and at times visible from shore, the wreck has long been a popular destination. The dramatic events of the infamous 1905 Mataafa storm and the crew’s survival added to Madeira’s mystique at the time of her loss, prompting construction of Split Rock Light Station, now a National Historic Landmark, nearby by 1910. The storm pushed Madeira into the sheer face of Gold Rock Cliff, leaving the wreckage on the underwater slope of the cliff’s base. Now, based on photogrammetry and other recent investigations by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, the National Register documentation is being updated as a historic district, recognizing Madeira’s significance within a Maritime Cultural Landscape that includes the shoreline cliff and adjacent lakebed.

In 2022 the Peerside Program was founded at the Florida Institute of Oceanography. Peerside's mission is to broaden access and ongoing involvement with Earth's ocean environment through an innovative program that increases and sustains social, educational, technical, and professional support and building community for ocean Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). This presentation focuses on the results of our two week cruise working with students collecting geophysical and geotechnical data from the Gulf of Mexico with the focus of recreating the paleolandscape and paleohurricane patterns over 9,000 years ago.