alt Hacker NewsGiven human propensity to settle near bodies of water (exhibited even to this day), and the change in sea levels after the last ice age, the bulk of intra-ice age settlement artifacts are probably submerged within a relatively short distance from our existing coastlines. I would be personally interested in an effort to systematically investigate these areas.
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The sea level rose more than 120 meters in the last 20000 years, so it won't necessarily be that short distance, but I think at least it should be easy to calculate where to look.
It would be great to see more underwater archaeology, I'm sure there's a lot to find. But due to variations in local conditions it's really tough to systematically investigate: every site has to be treated individually. Plus doing anything underwater becomes at least 10× harder and more expensive. Human scientific divers can only work easily down to about 30m: anything significantly deeper requires commercial diving protocols, submersibles, or ROVs which raise the difficulty and cost even further.
This is not even the only stone age settlement under water in Denmark, there is at least one other I know of on Zealand, article in Danish about it: https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/fagligt/marinarkaeologi/ma...
Agree strongly. Especially around the Mediterranean including the north coast of Africa and the southern horn of Africa. Ancient humans are known to have inhabited the southern tip of Africa into the last interglacial period, and human migration across and settlement in the occasionally green Sahara could explain some things.
Unfortunately most have probably been destroyed by dragnet fishing.
This is probably especially an issue for early North American settlements if people crossing over during the ice age glacial maximum were traveling down the coasts right after coming over the Bering Land Bridge
The Archeology of Europe‘s Drowned Landscapes: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-37367-2
A recent episode of The Ancients talks about how oil and mineral exploration companies have been sharing their seismic mapping data of Doggerland with archeologists:
https://shows.acast.com/the-ancients/episodes/doggerland-the...
Partnering with industries that are mapping areas is certainly the only cost effective way for academic to work in submerged landscapes:
https://archaeology.org/issues/march-april-2022/letters-from...