The continental shelves of the world were exposed by lower sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age and they were flooded as the ice sheets melted and drained to the oceans.  This global process began about 18,000 calendar (calibrated) years ago, and continued over the next 11,000 years -- until about 7,000 calendar (calibrated) years ago.

This time coincides with the introduction of people in the New World and colonizing virtually every region of it. Consequently, evidence for human occupation sites, particularly sites left by colonizing fluted point bearing people, is expected on the continental shelves.  The map shown to the right is a compilation of the distributions of fluted points across the United States. It reveals several areas of concentration that may have components submerged  offshore. 

From an eastern North American perspective, conducting underwater archaeology on the continental shelves, seeking submerged fluted point sites, is a growing research need.

 
Offshore research might help us determine when (and from where) fluted point Paleoindians first arrived in the New World.  With data from these kinds of sites we might be able to determine if people moved along the coasts early in the process of colonization, or if they came to the coastlines after settlement in the interior of the continent had occured for some time. Continental shelf archaeology can help us  reconstruct where and how these people settled in, and  it can allow us to determine whether Paleoindians utilized near-coastal and marine resources.  However, sustained research to find continental shelf submerged prehistoric sites is only now beginning to take place, and there is a lot to learn about how to find these kinds of sites, and what to do once you do. 

Finding submerged prehistoric sites is not easy, thats why few people have attempted it so far. In principle, the potential for site discovery improves with early site densities in nearby onshore setttings so that human presence offshore is predictable. It is also useful to have submerged Paleolandscapes that can be remotely sensed and probed with cores or dredges. A moderate to low energy marine environment to work in is also helpful.  One of the main principles of continental shelf prehistoric archaeology is to look for settings offshore that are similar to places onshore that have similar aged sites.  Places  like caves, river margins, river confluences, and in Florida, both in and around sinkholes.  For more discusson about the theoretical organization of the methods see procedures.

 
Florida is an excellent place to conduct continental shelf prehistoric archaeology. One reason for this is that numerous sites and isolated artifacts indicative of  late Pleistocene and early Holocene Clovis-related occupations have been found in what is now peninsular Florida. Many artifact discoveries have been made in and around karst rivers in the north and western parts of the state, especially  the Santa Fe, Suwannee, and, of course, the Aucilla. 

Most artifacts were found by non-professional divers/collectors, and most of the finds were made without recordation of provenience. Today there is a policy of the Bureau of Archaeological to record these "Isolated Finds", but the numbers are dwindling. There are examples of diver/collectors who were diligent in their record keeping -- like the late Ben Waller -- and from informants like this Jim Dunbar, of the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, compiled a large sample of Paleopoints from which the map at the right  was made.

These early, Clovis related artifacts begin with Clovis fluted points (about 13,000 calendar (calibrated)  years ago) and end with Kirk projectile points (9,500 calendar (calibrated) years ago). Some extinct faunal remains found in these underwater contexts show evidence of butcher cuts and other kinds of shaping by humans (seeARPPweb pages).

A plethora of stemmed Archaic points are also known from these settings, but the direct sylistic and technological affinities with Clovis are not as demonstrable.

Click on image for closer view

This patch of early archaological sites is adjacent to an area of continental shelf that has produced archaeological sites out to a distance of nine nautical miles (PAPP).  Sites are  predictable as far as 85 miles off shore at a depth of 40 meters, what we call the Paleo- or Clovis Shoreline. Sea level lowering as long ago as 18,000 calendar (calibrated) years ago might have been as much as 100 meters, the level of which is more than 100 miles offshore.  What kinds of sites, or specifically where they might be now, or their condition are some of the issues we are trying to determine by our research.

Another factor that enables submerged prehistoric sites to be found in this offshore area is that karst geologic features identical to those onshore continue out to sea, making it possible to find analogous situations for paleontological and archaeological discoveries. The submerged region is a flat karst plain with minimal sediment load from the adjacent  river drainage systems allowing access to the archaeological remains offshore. 

As far as we know now the climatic regime on the exposed continental shelf of Florida during the late Pleistocene was like that known from pollen studies for the onshore areas. Conditions were more arid and there were large grassland savannahs and "islands" of oak and palmetto.  Sources of water were isolated and found most reliably in those karstic features with connection to the Floridan Aquifer. Rivers were discontinuous for the most part, flowing underground for parts of their course and above ground for others. River channels may have combined  farther out out on the continental shelf, forming continous, even sinous, sediment bearing alluvial rivers. Low elevation grassland savannahs, away from the margins of karst drainage features, supported diverse populations of Pleistocene animals like mastodons, mammoths, horses and sloths, and a plethora of other smaller animals and birds.