Greece: Unstable landscapes and underwater archaeology

Abstract

The submerged archaeology of Greece extends from the Palaeolithic to the early Byzantine period. It offers valuable information on some of the critical themes of Eurasian prehistory: hominin dispersals, settlement patterns, strategies of survival, population movements and sea voyaging, communication and trade, high-energy destructive events and climate change. This overview focuses on the prehistoric record. It includes partly or fully submerged palaeontological sites as well as archaeological sites. All these are testimonies to the more extensive coastal mosaic of biotopes that were available to prehistoric people prior to c. 4000 cal BP in the Holocene and during the cold and arid periods of the Pleistocene. They show coastal and maritime lifeways in dynamically changing landscapes connecting Asia and Europe. They are now located on the Greek continental shelf due to eustatic and isostatic change as well as the heavy imprint of tectonic activity.