Historical underwater habitation by humans?

04 December 2011

Part of the show Underwater Archaeology and Underwater Welding

ATLANTIS MAP

Athanasius Kircher's map of Atlantis, placing it in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, from Mundus Subterraneus 1669, published in Amsterdam. The map is oriented with south at the top.

Play Download

Question

Aaron Thomas asked:

“Are scientists looking for evidence of underwater sites of habitation by humans and if they are, where are they looking?”

Answer

We posed this question to Dave Parham from Bournemouth University....

Dave - Scientists are looking for underwater habitation sites that go back into the early periods of pre-history. There's been extensive work in the North Sea looking for such habitation sites and there's been a colossal amount of work in the Solent off the Isle of Wight. I've done a lot of work looking at a Mesolithic site there.