Places Forgotten by History: The Archaeological Potential of Submerged Landscapes

Date: September 14, 2023

Series: Ocean Exploration

Speaker: Amanda M. Evans, PhD, RPA, Maritime Services Practice Leader, Gray & Pape, Inc.

Introduction by Logan Kline, 2023 Knauss Science Communication Fellow at Ocean Exploration, NOAA.

Summary: Changing sea-levels have drastically changed the shape and amount of land available for habitation throughout human history. Using modern marine technologies, portions of these formerly exposed landscapes can be identified on or buried below the modern seafloor, and data gathered to illustrate what life would have been like in these areas. This talk will present the results of recent exploration along the northwestern Gulf of Mexico to map and illustrate these landscapes. In addition to discussing technologies, this talk will address how ocean exploration can further our understanding of settlement patterns and past human behavior.

Keywords: landscapes, geophysics, archaeology

Speaker Bio: Dr. Evans is an underwater archaeologist with over 20 years of experience who has worked across the Southeast, Great Lakes, and Gulf and Atlantic coast regions of the United States, and the Caribbean and Mediterranean. She earned a Doctorate from Louisiana State University, and a Master’s from Florida State University. Dr. Evans’s specialties include submerged paleolandscapes and marine geophysics; physical site formation processes; and historic preservation and best practices regarding underwater cultural heritage.