Anyone interested in archaeology of land lost during sea level rise?

[repoman]

I think this is a fascinating but extremely difficult topic to research.

The most interesting thing I have seen so far is the dredging of North Sea of the area that was previously Doggerland.

I think that the time of ice age thaw sea level rise was on the cusp of people having impressive sized settlements and structures. Also that long of a time will destroy almost all remains.

Human coastal migrations before the sea level rise is also very hidden because of this.

Anyway, anyone have interesting info on this topic?

ETA: I think that loss of Sundaland may be the most interesting aspect of this topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundaland

 

[dystopian]

While it isn't exactly always sea-level rise related, there have been numerous geography changing floods throughout recorded history in my country. There's a lot of areas that used to be land, then were lost in catastrophic floods; and then sometimes they became land again, only to again be lost in a catastrophic flood... only to then finally be reclaimed by humans.

For instance, I live on the largest artificial island in the world (around 1400 square kilometers in size), it used to be an inland sea which we then cut off from the north-sea to create a lake, but before that it was also a lake in Roman times and earlier still it was just land. In my city (in the southwest tip of the island) alone there's some 60 different pre-historical archeological sites, some of which date back around 10-12.000 years; back then this was slowly changing from a tundra landscape and nomadic hunter-tribes lived here; with limited agriculture starting up around 8-9000 years ago until the region developed into a mostly uninhabitable bog which would later still become a lake and then a sea.

Most of the interesting stuff dates from between 6700 and 3800 BC, belonging to the Swifterbant culture whichwere the first people here with permanent habitation sites; being a transitional culture between hunter-gatherers and an agricultural one. They lived in houses that looked something like this:

After that, there's archeological finds belonging to the Funnelbeaker culture; and more recently Germanic and Roman finds. And there's literally hundreds of shipwrecks that've been found in the soil after we reclaimed it. Hundreds of WW2 planes too.

 

[skepticalbip]

You may be interested in this...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1768109.stm

Lost city 'could rewrite history'
By BBC News Online's Tom Housden

The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history.

Marine scientists say archaeological remains discovered 36 metres (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old.

The vast city - which is five miles long and two miles wide - is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years.
.................

Check the link for more.

 

[repoman]

Here is an interesting loophole:

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_archaeology#Pre-historic_landscapes

Pre-historic landscapes[edit]
Maritime archaeology studies prehistorical objects and sites that are, because of changes in climate and geology, now underwater.

Bodies of water, fresh and saline, have been important sources of food for people for as long as we have existed. It should be no surprise that ancient villages were located at the water's edge. Since the last ice age sea level has risen as much as 400 feet (~120 meters).

Therefore, a great deal of the record of human activity throughout the Ice Age is now to be found under water.

The flooding of the area now known as the Black Sea (when a land bridge, where the Bosporus is now, collapsed under the pressure of rising water in the Mediterranean Sea) submerged a great deal of human activity that had been gathered round what had been an enormous, fresh-water lake.

Significant cave art sites off the coast of western Europe such as the Grotto Cosquer can be reached only by diving, because the cave entrances are underwater, though the upper portions of the caves themselves are not flooded.

So maybe there are some artifacts in places like Grotto Cosquer that can give a clue to how people in those now submerged lands lived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosquer_Cave

 

[repoman]

Here is some research being done about coastal migration along prehistoric Alaska:

http://polarfield.com/blog/tag/bering-land-bridge/

 

[Trodon]

DNA evidence indicates that modern humans left Africa about 60,000 years ago. Nevertheless, the first place they show up in the fossil record is Australia. They did not fly there. They must have traveled along the sea shore. They probably lived there to avoid the more primitive humans inland, because the more primitive humans were stronger, and had better reflexes and coordination.

The ancestors of the Australian Aborigines left remains that have been covered up by the rise in the sea level. It would be interesting to discover some of those remains.

 

[bleubird]

Here is some research being done about coastal migration along prehistoric Alaska:

http://polarfield.com/blog/tag/bering-land-bridge/

I still think the umiak was a large part of migration to north America.Skin boats going down the coast.

 

[repoman]

Are there any non-human hominid remains in Australia?

 

[skepticalbip]

Are there any non-human hominid remains in Australia?

None that I have ever heard of. My understanding is that the only mammals in Australia before the arrival of homo-sapiens were marsupials.

 

[gmbteach]

Are there any non-human hominid remains in Australia?

None that I have ever heard of. My understanding is that the only mammals in Australia before the arrival of homo-sapiens were marsupials.

And great big ones at that!

 

[skepticalbip]

None that I have ever heard of. My understanding is that the only mammals in Australia before the arrival of homo-sapiens were marsupials.

And great big ones at that!

Yup, the full spectrum from great big 'uns to little-bitty 'uns and from docile herbivores to ferocious carnivores. Now I gotta wonder... is the Yowie a marsupial? I'm pretty sure that the drop bears are.

 

[gmbteach]

And great big ones at that!

Yup, the full spectrum from great big 'uns to little-bitty 'uns and from docile herbivores to ferocious carnivores. Now I gotta wonder... is the Yowie a marsupial? I'm pretty sure that the drop bears are.

Yowie's are kind of the Drop Bears uncle. It's a cross between a drop bear, a yeti, and bigfoot. Basically, you don't want to mess with it.

 

[Bomb#20]

Are there any non-human hominid remains in Australia?

None that I have ever heard of. My understanding is that the only mammals in Australia before the arrival of homo-sapiens were marsupials.

There are also platypuses and echidnas, the only remaining survivors from the mammals in Australia before the marsupials arrived. There are mice, who presumably floated there on driftwood from Asia. And, of course, there are vast numbers of mammals whose ancestors flew there.

 

[Trodon]

Are there any non-human hominid remains in Australia?

None have been discovered. Because Australia is surrounded by ocean, I doubt Homo Erectus could have gotten there.

 

[repoman]

Are there any non-human hominid remains in Australia?

None have been discovered. Because Australia is surrounded by ocean, I doubt Homo Erectus could have gotten there.

Well, the distance from southeast Asia is much smaller during glaciations, but it is not negligible.

this looks like an interesting blog about the topic:

http://scribol.com/science/homo-erectus-crosses-the-open-ocean

However, if Homo Erectus made it to Australia and no other hominids made it until modern humans, you would think that they would have lasted until that time.

 

[fromderinside]

How about we use routes based on extant DNA like those found in national geographic The Human Journey: Migration Routes https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey/

and a few geological surveys of migration period related to geological conditions such as
DISPERSE: dynamic landscapes, coastal environments and human dispersals
http://www.ipgp.fr/~king/Geoffrey_King/Publications_files/2012 Disperse Antiquity.pdf

and Dating the colonization of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia–NewGuinea): a review of recent research (2004) http://www.anthro.utah.edu/PDFs/Papers/JAS=OC&A.pdf

having a base such as this could simplify our discussion making it more concrete and less speculative.

For instance the seas apparently were 200 meter lower somewhere around 45 k years ago.

Differences of 5 to 10 k years are permissible dating errors and the genetic distance time marker analysis is calibratable against nearby physical indicators.

 

[Tigers!]

I remember reading once how forges used by the Greeks during the battle of Salamis (480 BC.) were found a few metres under the sea.

 

[repoman]

This is a long but good video about this topic