Modelling flint acoustics for detection of submerged Stone Age sites

Abstract

In accordance with the increasing industrial interests in the sea areas a two-pronged development can be observed: an appearance of new methodologies for up-to-date and costeffective management and protection of these cultural areas and environmental resources which is underpinned by a parallel development of a legislative framework. For submerged cultural heritage UNESCO's Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UNESCO 2001) forms an important part of this administrative development. The method for acoustic detection of submerged Stone Age sites outlined in this paper will, if it can be demonstrated to work in practice, contribute to the spectrum of ongoing new technologies facilitating access to large amounts of environmental data, useful for the understanding of environmental changes such as rising sea levels and their impact on human cultural systems in prehistory. This paper mainly addresses the acoustical characterization of buried flints for Stone Age underwater archaeology. A finite element time domain method is used to simulate acoustic remote sensing in a realistic environment. The method is capable of accurately representing the complex interplay between the acoustic waves, the sediments and the flints embedded in the cultural layer. The predicted signals, once compared with in-situ measurements, provide the basis for the solution of inverse problems that can pinpoint the presence of worked flint over large areas.