J&J Hunt Submerged Archaeological Site - Sea-level Rise

Sea-level Rise

During the Late Glacial Maximum (ca. 18,000 years ago) the continental shelf around the Gulf Coast of Florida was exposed for at least 185 km from the present-day mouth of the Aucilla River. At this time and for the next 7,000 years the sea-level was around 90 m lower than today’s present level. Then around 14,000 B.P. until approximately 11,000 B.P., at the onset of the Younger Dryas, massive melting of the ice sheets resulted in sea-level rise and transgression of the continental shelf to about 140 km from the mouth of the Aucilla River (Faught 2004b). A second glacial melting began after 10,000 B.P. and lasted until about 7,000 B.P. when sea levels became relatively constant. It is important to note that as sea levels rose it forced people settled along the coast to move further and further inland. During late Pleistocene and early Holocene times, the coastline was much farther out on the continental shelf, and this segment of the PaleoAucilla was forested and well inland. Later, during the middle Holocene stages of transgression, the segment was more of a wide grassy marsh with brackish water tidal creeks and oysters. In this continental shelf setting, submerged archaeological sites remain in clustered arrays accessible by underwater archaeological methods, and the data provide a critical supplement to our present understanding of late Pleistocene and early Holocene settlement patterns and paleolandscape utilization(2004b). The Underwater Archaeology of Paleolandscapes, Apalachee Bay, Florida. American Antiquity, Vol. 69, No. 2. (Apr., 2004), pp. 275-289.