The Ukraine: In Search of Submerged Late Palaeolithic Sites on the North-Western Black Sea Shelf
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Дата
2020
Науковий керівник
Укладач
Редактор
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E-ISSN
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Видавець
Анотація
The continental shelf offshore of the Ukraine
coast represents one of the largest areas of
submerged landscape in the Black Sea, comparable
to the extensive shelf areas of
Northwest Europe. The general region has a
long history of Palaeolithic occupation and
numerous archaeological sites associated
with the major river systems draining from
the north, including many famous Palaeolithic
settlements. The submerged landscape
exposed during periods of low sea level
would have offered an extensive and attractive
extra increment of land. Underwater
archaeological survey in the Black Sea has so
far failed to produce convincing evidence of
pre-Holocene
sites, but the expectation that
the Ukrainian shelf harbours Late Upper
Palaeolithic sites is strengthened by the presence
of occasional flint artefacts in sediment
cores recovered from the shelf area during
geological surveys. This chapter develops a
predictive model for identifying target areas
in the search for Late Palaeolithic sites on
this submerged landscape. We focus on the
Dniester-Kuyalnik region and analyse the
location and distribution of on-land Late
Palaeolithic sites in relation to the topographic
and palaeoenvironmental features of
their local surroundings to identify key determinants
of site location. We then use the
maps produced by the many hundreds of
sediment sequences recovered by drilling
and coring on the shelf, many radiometrically
dated, to identify similar features on the
submerged landscape. We also assess the
likelihood of site preservation and visibility
under different scenarios—rapid or gradual—
of sea-level
rise. A preliminary test of
the model was attempted with remotely operated
vehicles, video and acoustic equipment,
but was terminated prematurely by logistic
problems, and further investigation awaits
improved funding.
Опис
Ключові слова
Coastline migration, Human adaptation, Palaeolithic, Holocene, Underwater survey
Бібліографічний опис
The Archaeology of Europe’s Drowned Landscapes. Coastal Research Library. Springer, Cham.