Abstract

Coastal and underwater geoarchaeology focuses on sea-level changes, environmental reconstruction, identification of harbor deposits, and tsunami events. Micro-geoarchaeology is a branch in geoarchaeology that focuses on the microscopic archaeological record via methods such as micromorphology, as well as analyses of micro-remains (e.g., phytoliths) and mineralogical compositions of occupation deposits. This branch is quite developed in terrestrial archaeology and almost absent in marine waterfront and underwater archaeology. In the last years we devised methods to apply micro-geoarchaeology to underwater archaeology, and especially to the archaeology of submerged prehistoric settlements. The talk will present these new advances via case studies in submerged Neolithic settlements off the Carmel coast (Israel) as well as formation processes affecting occupation deposits that are unique to waterfront coastal habitation in the same study region.