SPLASH projects are dedicated to protecting Florida’s cultural resources with research, publication, and outreach.
Many of Florida’s richest and most endangered cultural resources lay submerged under both fresh river and oceanic salt waters. These sites contain unparalleled organic preservation crucial for answering some of the most vehemently debated topics in archaeology. Since the last glacial maximum (24,000 years ago), Florida has lost over half its land mass to rising seas as glacial meltwater was reintroduced into the oceans. This has dramatically limited Florida’s coastal archaeological record from the Paleoindian through the Late Archaic Periods (14,550-5,000 years ago). In fact, not a single unequivocal coastal Paleoindian site has been identified on the East Coast, despite the identification of so many Paleoindian sites near the modern coastline. Much of what archaeologists know about the First Floridians comes from research at submerged river sites, such as Page-Ladson, the oldest archaeological site in the Southeast. Sites such as these extend onto the submerged paleo-landscape, now drowned off Florida’s coastlines.
Threats to these submerged archaeological sites come from natural and human impacts.
SPLASH projects are dedicated to protecting Florida’s cultural resources with research and publication.
