Nicholas Flemming

National Oceanography Centre, Southampton | NOCS

Underwater research by diving scientists and those using submersibles increased rapidly after 1950. Institutes and universities established research diving groups, and over two decades created training standards, research methodologies, and chains of managerial and moral authority for safety. This article describes the growth of this important rese...

Coastal erosion in Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya) represents a major problem for archaeology and heritage management. The area is rich in archaeological sites, often understudied or not fully documented, but also has extensive stretches of vulnerable eroding coastline. This study demonstrates the extent and impact of erosion via shoreline change assessm...

Over 3000 submerged cultural landscapes with archaeological indicators from the Pleistocene/Early Holocene on the continental shelf are known worldwide. These range from the nearshore to about 100 m below modern sea level, and they vary in age from 5,000 years to up to one million years old. Preserved relict terrestrial deposits and cultural landsc...

There are about 3000 submerged prehistoric sites globally distributed in different climates and oceanographic environments. Many are already known on the continental shelves of the Americas. Review of the global distribution helps to identify more locations of preserved sites on the American shelves.

I led the team that first mapped the submerged city of Apollonia, Libya, in 1958-59, and revisited the underwater ruins in 2003. The article describes the changes and damage to the archaeological remains.

APOLLONIA ON MY MIND see also: sidestone.com/books/apollonia-on-my-mind Divers map the huge submerged city of Apollonia Libya.

The study of prehistoric archaeology on the continental shelf has accelerated steadily for the last 100 years. This paper considers prediction methods that seek to show how the subject can evolve and develop in the next decade or more.

Over 3000 seabed prehistoric sites globally have been discovered by archaeologists. Sites submerged by deglaciating rise of the sea and showing hominin remains of various dates have been found off the coasts of China, Japan, South Africa, throughout the Mediterranean, off the coasts of all European countries, and off American coasts. The age range...

This article is the Foreword to a multi-author text resulting from the SPLASHCOS Action on submerged prehistoric archaeology of Europe. This book describes the archaeology of all known submerged prehistoric remains and their regional context for the whole European continental shelf. They were inundated by the postglacial rise of global sea level. O...

The book is the final publication from the SPLASHCOS project and describes the recorded submerged prehistoric sites in European seas. Dimitris Sakellariou and I were involved in launching the project in 2008, and Professor Geoff Bailey, the lead Editor, invited us to write the Foreword. It is an open access publication.

Submerged prehistory has emerged as a key topic within archaeology over the last decade. During this period the broader academic community has become aware of its potential for revolutionising our understanding of the past. With recent technological and scientific developments has come an opportunity to investigate larger areas and learn more than...

Underwater geoarchaeological studies typically involve case studies that vary widely in scale, environment and stage of application. As a result, the range of survey techniques and applied methods is very broad. This paper aims to present an overview of state-of-the-art techniques and survey strategies for submerged prehistoric site evaluation. We...

Description Quaternary Paleoenvironments examines the drowned landscapes exposed as extensive and attractive territory for prehistoric human settlement during the Ice Ages of the Pleistocene, when sea levels dropped to 120m-135m below their current levels. This volume provides an overview of the geological, geomorphological, climatic and sea-level...

This introduction highlights some general issues affecting the survival or destruction of archaeological features, and summarizes the recent history of collaboration associated with the Submerged Prehistoric Archaeology and Landscapes of the Continental Shelf (SPLASHCOS) project and its predecessor, the Deukalion Planning Group project, which gave...

This chapter considers the routine sources of seabed data and how best to extract paleolandscape information from them. For seabed prehistoric research one needs to transform the usual methods of describing the characteristics of the seabed and sub-seabed structures into descriptors of submerged Pleistocene terrestrial landscapes in a systematic wa...

This chapter looks at how a relatively rising, constant, or falling sea level threatens to destroy a prehistoric deposit, and under what immediately local conditions it is likely to survive in a way that preserves information, preferably in the context of its terrestrial landscape, which can be interpreted by archaeologists. It addresses the generi...

This chapter provides an overview of the work that has been undertaken in the region of the English Channel and Celtic Sea area. It contains background information about the environment, geology and paleogeography of the region alongside a summary of current research, data sets and knowledge of submerged prehistoric sites. Understanding of local ge...

Human genome analysis and research into fossil anthropogenic nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA are providing many new insights into hominin diffusion and migration over the past half million years. The beginning and end data on migration routes frequently imply that the migration involved crossing a present sea-channel or marginal basin, or migrati...

Over 3000 submerged prehistoric occupation sites on the continental shelf are known worldwide, varying in depth from the nearshore to about 100m and ranging in age from 5,000 years to 0.5-1.0 million years. Sites have been found off the coast of every continent except Antarctica. These findings are consistent with the climatic fluctuations of the P...

During the last 1 million years the global sea level fluctuated between 130m lower than at present to a few metres above present level due to changes in the volume of ice caps. During low sea levels Tertiary karsts were exposed on the continental shelf of the Mediterranean, new karstic solution occurred on others shelves, and new cliffs and caves w...

The European Marine Board provides a pan-European platform for its member organizations to develop common priorities, to advance marine research, and to bridge the gap between science and policy in order to meet future marine science challenges and opportunities. Established in 1995, the European Marine Board provides the essential components for t...

The European continental shelf which was exposed subaerially for most of the last one million years was occupied by a fauna and flora which included, at different dates, hominins and anatomically modern humans. Over 2500 submerged prehistoric sites are known. This report considers the value that archaeological study of these sites and the associate...

ABSTRACT An ocean observing system to provide the data for climate research, modelling, and forecasting must be designed to high standards of accuracy and continuity. The observations are maintained for many years to develop the criteria for climate forecasting, and hence, in the meantime many of the data can and should be used for short and medium...

Homo sapiens evolved over the last million years during which time the climate fluctuated strongly. Ice accumulated and melted again, exposing and flooding the continental shelves - land which was colonised by plants and animals. About 3000 such prehistoric sites with archaeological remains have been found on the sea floor by divers.

This position paper describes a new research field, Continental Shelf Prehistoric Research. The objectives of the position paper are to assess the present level of commitment to this research and to cultural heritage management in general, evaluate the results so far, consider the benefits, and plan ahead to justify further investment and collabora...

Seabed prehistoric archaeology has arrived during the last decade at what economists like to call 'escape velocity'. Archaeological sites ranging from 5,000 years old to around 1 million years old have been found offshore, mapped and sometime excavated off all major continents, in both hemispheres, from the shore to depths of over 100m, and from al...

Analysis of both modern human DNA and fossil DNA provides the basis for innovative and plausible models of global hominin dispersal from Africa (eg. Forster 2004; Genographic project). Recent discoveries in South Africa and elsewhere are increasing the scope for early developments and multiple early dispersals. However, the date scale of such analy...

The Belgammel Ram was found off the coast of Libya in 1964, and examined during 2008-9. The following techniques were used: surface non-contact digitizing using a laser scanner, reflectance transformation imaging using polynomial texture mapping and hemi-spherical harmonics, digital photogrammetry with dense surface modelling, structured light opti...

Archaeological research on the coast and offshore Cyrenaica in eastern Libya has been very sparse for the last 50 years. Some research has been done, but often under difficult conditions This short paper reviews the research underwater at Apollonia in 1958-59, and up-dates this with summary reports of work by other authors at Apollonia, Phycus, and...

Your articles on human dispersal in the late Pleistocene epoch (Nature 485, 23; 2012) overlook the significance of now-submerged archaeological sites on the continental shelf during this period (126,000-11,00 years ago). It is wrong to assume that these were completely destroyed by the sea and that the interpretation of human movements must reply o...

Pavlopetri, off the coast of Laconia, Greece, is a submerged prehistoric town, which consists of intact building foundations, courtyards, streets, graves, and rock-cut tombs. New underwater research in 2009 consisted of detailed underwater survey of the structural remains (using a robotic total station and sector-scan sonar technology) alongside sa...

Research Infrastructure for Systematic Study of the Prehistoric Archaeology of the European Submerged Continental Shelf. The slow but accelerating accumulation of data defining the sea-level changes, palaeoclimate, subaerial terrestrial soils, river drainage patterns, coastal marshes and peats, combined with properly controlled mapping and excavati...

Sea level trends in the Mediterranean Sea and their forcing parameters are explored. Multi-decadal trends from available tide gauge records are estimated together with the contribution of the oceanic (steric and mass variations) and atmospheric (pressure and wind) changes as well as land movements (including GIA). Each forcing factor is considered...

The global marine environment and seabed are increasingly exploited to gain materials, food, and services, and at the same time they are subject to increasing regulation, control, and research. Primary amongst the extractive industries are hydrocarbons, aggregates, and their supporting industries and contractors.

Two ambitious questions are raised and partially answered in this thoughtful paper. First, is it possible to develop a generalized logical model for the search of prehistoric occupied site relicts offshore on the continental shelf by broadening the concepts from successful Danish research? Second, how do we maximise the chances of finding submerged...

The purpose of the North Sea Prehistory Research and Management Framework (NSPRMF) is to facilitate the large-scale systematic and interdisciplinary study and preservation (where possible) of a unique sedimentary and archaeological record of some two million years that is currently submerged beneath the waters of the southern North Sea.

We provide a critical review of the evidence for the long-term use of marine resources and coastal environments in human evolution and later development. We emphasise the importance of the coastal archaeological record in understanding patterns of human settlement and dispersal and draw attention to the large potential biases introduced by the dest...

Cultural resource managers (CRM) ad permitting agencies are increasingly concerned about submerged prehistoric archeological sites, which are significant due to their context and age. Prehistoric archeological sites can consist of large arrays of stone, bone, and possibly wood artifacts, earthen features, and other organic items preserved in variou...

We examine some long-standing assumptions about the early use of coastlines and marine resources and their contribution to the pattern of early human dispersal, and focus on the southern Red Sea Basin and the proposed southern corridor of movement between Africa and Arabia across the Bab al-Mandab Straits. We reconstruct relative sea levels in ligh...

We explore the proposition that the Red Sea Basin was an attractive coastal habitat for human settlement in early prehistory and an important zone of cultural contact and population dispersal between Africa and Asia, rather than a barrier. We use the global record of sea-level change associated with the glacial-interglacial cycle to reconstruct the...

The limestone Rock of Gibraltar offers a complete register of marine erosion, at different scales, that include periods of tectonic uplifting lasting for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, and climatic and eustatic events lasting thousands or tens of thousand years.

The Mediterranean network to Assess and upgrade the Monitoring and forecasting Activity (MAMA), a 3-year thematic network project shared by leading marine research institutions from all the Mediterranean countries, has contributed to strengthening the institutional and scientific platform for the establishment of operational oceanography in the reg...

The EuroGOOS conference has become a key event on the agenda of Oceanographic Research. The very successful 4th EuroGOOS conference, which took place in Brest from 6 to 9 June 2005, had the title "European Operational Oceanography: Present and Future". The Conference reviewed the progress of operational oceanography during the past three years at b...

The EuroGOOS conference has become a key event on the agenda of Oceanographic Research. The very successful 4th EuroGOOS conference, which took place in Brest from 6 to 9 June 2005, had the title “European Operational Oceanography: Present and Future”. The conference reviewed the progress of operational oceanography during the past three years at b...

The public seems to have an insatiable appetite for wild archaeological theories, even at a time when genuine archaeological information is more widely available than ever and is more exciting than ever. In practice, many nonexperts are able to distinguish sharply between archaeology and pseudoarchaeology, but why do so many people fall for obvious...

Traditional ideas of intraseasonal and interannual climatic variability in the Western Indian Ocean, dominated by the mean cycle of seasonally reversing monsoon winds, are being replaced by a more complex picture, comprising air-sea interactions and feedbacks; atmosphere-ocean dynamics operating over intrannual to interdecadal time-scales; and clim...

Coastal nations worldwide are experiencing changes in their coastal marine and estuarine system the jeopardize sustainable development, human health and safety, and the capacity of marine ecosystems to support products and services valued by society. Changes of concern include increases in the susceptibility of coastal populations to flooding, tsun...

Submarine prehistoric archaeology enables us to discover how early man lived on the continental shelf during the Pleistocene Ice Ages, when the eustatic sea level dropped to more than 100 m lower than now. The archaeologists have found the remains of hominid and modern human occupation, including stone tools, bones, fireplaces, food remains, and cu...

Submarine Prehistoric Archaeology of the North Sea. Research priorities and collaboration with industry This fascinating volume on submerged prehistoric landscapes of the North Sea brings together for the first time comparative archaeological evidence from Norway, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, and the UK. The reports describe a range of submerged...

The sustainable development and the efficient management of ocean-related activities critically depend on the availability of oceanographic information and data. Shipping, for instance, can save operational costs by a more adequate choice of routes or transit timing and planning. Fisheries management benefits from fish stock assessment, and fish...

The area of the UK Continental Shelf out to a sea depth of 200m is greater than the area of the present UK dry land. The area of the whole north west European shelf, including the whole North Sea and Baltic, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea, Channel and Biscay shelf, is three times as much. The southern shelf area, south of 53 degrees north, has never been gl...

As the ocean observing system network becomes mature and information flow is enhanced, knowledge of the business and policy applications of the information will guide further design improvements. An analysis has been carried out from the “demand side” of the optimal temporal and spatial resolution and information format necessary for the ingestion...

At the end of the 3rd EuroGOOS Conference, Hans Dahlin asked me to say a few words by way of rounding out the conference, and completing the proceedings. Having attended three EuroGOOS Conferences, 1996 in Den Haag, Netherlands; in 1999 in Rome, Italy, and now in 2002 in Athens, I accepted to do this with pleasure. Hans asked me to put the Conferen...

Executive Summary Prehistoric submarine archaeological remains back to a date of about 9000 years ago, Mesolithic and Neolithic, could occur in the SEA4 area between the northern mainland coast and out to a depth of the order of 150m on either side of the Orkney-Shetland Ridge. The combination of post-glacial sea level rise which terminated about 5...

Submarine prehistoric archaeological sites on Mediterranean coasts contribute to understanding human migrations in the last 2 million years. "Out of Africa", "Multi-regional", and "Trellis" models of human origins and dispersal depend on what environments attracted hominid and modern human occupation, and how temporal and spatial variations in envi...

Sustainable development requires the intelligent management of the marine environment, to protect the marine ecosystem, minimise the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic influences, and provide benefits for a wide range of users. Routine ocean monitoring and forecasting based on sound science, long term and adaptive monitoring,, and co-opera...

Sustainable development requires the intelligent management of the marine environment, to protect the marine ecosystem, minimise the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic influences, and provide benefits for a wide range of users. Routine ocean monitoring and forecasting based on sound science, long term and adaptive monitoring, and co-operat...

The 21st century has brought a strong recognition of the increasing vulnerability of society to environmental change and an understanding of human impact on the environment. Key to this recognition and understanding are measures or indicators of change and impact and education of the public about the issues. These indicators, such as global surface...

The goal of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is to create a coordinated, worldwide system of ocean observations from satellites, ships, in-situ buoys, and other sources. GOOS was adopted as a priority activity by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) in 1991, and as plans for GOOS developed, it became obvious that implementin...