Inundated cultural landscapes: an introduction

Archaeologists have known for more than a century that fluctuating sea levels have repeatedly exposed and flooded coastal landscapes (e.g. Lubbock 1913: Figure 255). However, it is only within the last few decades that we have more fully explored the potential that inundated landscapes possess for broadening our understanding of cultural land use, settlement and early coastal adaptations. Examples are abundant, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere (Sturt et al. 2018), with pioneering work in the North Sea’s ‘Doggerland’ (Gaffney, Fitch, and Smith 2009; see also Gaffney and Fitch 2022 for an up-to-date summary), the Baltic (Bailey and Jöns 2020), the Gulf of Mexico (Faught and Gusick 2011) and across the Red Sea Basin (Bailey et al. 2007). However, inundated cultural landscapes are present not just along coastlines but include marine and freshwater wetlands, lakes, river deltas, and other waterways (e.g. Coleman 2008; Fedje and Josenhans 2000; Halligan 2021; Puckett 2021). While the scope of research has broadened beyond its original focus on coastal systems, the study of inundated cultural landscapes remains principally concerned with the identification, characterization and interpretation of formerly inhabited terrestrial settings that, due to natural or anthropogenically-driven shoreline transgression, are now underwater. With these broad goals in mind, this volume builds on an existing body of knowledge to present new and varied studies on inundated cultural landscapes (ICL), highlighting what they can reveal about changing approaches and perspectives on this theme.