Theme:
5. (Extreme) Environments – Islands, Coasts, Margins, Centres
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
On Land and Underwater. Detection and Evaluation of Archaeological Sites: Comparative Methodology on a European Scale [Archaeological Prospection Community]
Content:
Since the Planarch project in the early 2000s, the question of detection and evaluation of archaeological sites on land have been discussed but the specificities of underwater, wetland or land-water interface areas are often less considered. These areas - offshore and nearshore waters, intertidal zones, sandy coastal areas, lagoonal or deltaic context and rivers have a strong archaeological potential. The EAA provides the perfect opportunity to think about the relevance of methods of investigation used in different countries across Europe, that include little or non-intrusive interventions (geophysical prospection, remote sensing, etc.) or the very intrusive interventions of (from auger sampling to linear trial trenches).
This session will initially focus on sharing experiences to assess how implemented methods are relevant in the case of detection and evaluation of archaeological sites, both from a theoretical point of view (regulatory framework) and from the point of view of practical application in the field. The aim will be to examine how various investigation methods (preliminary documentary studies, remote sensing, geophysical and hydrographic solutions, extent of trial trenches and organisation, recording systems, etc.) contribute to and limit archaeological detection and evaluation in these areas with severe constraints.
For water contexts as for the more common land areas, it seems relevant to discuss how we can use the preliminary evaluation phase as a research tool in its own right. While the scientific validity of the data from an evaluation phase is generally accepted, the value of this type of "sampling" as a tool for a large-scale interpretation can still be ignored.
Our aim is to share different experiences to highlight how datasets from archaeological evaluation are used to build models on different scales that provide information on the evolution of the impact of human activity on the natural environment, on its transformation and development.
Keywords:
land contexts, underwater contexts, detection methods, research tool, human activity
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Archaeological Prospection Community
Main organiser:
Rebecca Peake (France) 1
Co-organisers:
Manuela Ritondale (Netherlands) 2
Cyril Marcigny (France) 1
Souen Fontaine (France) 1
Guillaume Hulin (France) 1
Affiliations:
1. Inrap
2. Groningen University
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