This session will explore the evolution of palaeolandscapes by focusing on the human dimension. In fact, the archaeology of submerged landscapes has made significant progress in addressing many decisive issues in human evolution, yet what can be achieved is often limited by the data available and/or the approaches we use – especially for areas that have only received limited attention. This inevitably leads to the risk of conceiving palaeolandscapes as empty boxes in which humans are conveniently placed, without much consideration of the dynamic nature of submerged landscapes and how this intertwines with the complexity of many aspects of human societies. Therefore, in this session we aim to address different perspectives and approaches that can help us move towards a more ‘humanly-conscious’ study of palaeolandscapes, which envisions these as vivid places rather than empty spaces. Firstly, by assuming that submerged landscapes are intrinsically dynamic, we would like to discuss new ways to picture palaeolandscapes in their ever-changing nature. Secondly, we want to explore the theme of life on submerged landscapes, focusing in particular on how certain aspects of human life – including, but not limited to, ecologies, settlement patterns, subsistence strategies, mobility, connectivity, and cosmologies – are affected by the dynamic nature of palaeolandscapes. Finally, we would like to bring particular attention to an issue which we believe will allow us to summarise the themes mentioned above, namely responses to sea level change: how can a ‘man in nature’ approach – rather than ‘man vs nature’ – help us improve our understanding of the issue? How can we explore resilience to and perception of changes? Can we, for example, identify ‘ritual’ responses to sea level change?
9:00am | Tracks through La Manche: exploring the ”Goldilocks Zone” | Beccy Scott, Martin Bates, Richard Bates, Ed Blinkhorn, Chantal Conneller, Sarah Duffy, Josie Mills, Andrew Shaw
9:20am | Lost landscapes and the Middle Palaeolothic occupation in the southern North Sea: new finds from the submerged Paleo-Yare | Andrew Shaw, Daniel Young & Hayley Hawkins
9:40am | People, ancestral beings, and offshore windfarm insfrastructure in the submerged paleolandscapes and Sea Country of Australia | Hanna Steyne
10:20am | Searching for Doggerland: Cultural Engagements with Submerged Prehistory and Regional North Sea Futures | Ren´ee Hoogland
10:40am | Discussion |
Full paper abstracts available here: https://tag2024.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/tag-2024-session-abstracts-1.pdf
