Identification

Title

Re-assessment of the archaeological potential of continental shelves

Abstract

The Re-assessment of the archaeological potential of continental shelves project is funded through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund as disbursed by English Heritage. The project assessed the current state of our knowledge and the archaeological potential of marine landscapes for both pre-historic and historic periods on a global basis. The specific geographical areas of interest to this study are the continental shelves which can be defined as the submerged parts of the continental margin, which slope very gently seawards, from the coastal zone (> 0 m depth) to the shelf break (c. 100 - 250 m water depth). Wide (10's - 100's km's) continental shelves are typically associated with passive margins (tectonically benign) which are relatively shallow (e.g. the east coast of North America). Narrow (km's) shelves usually denote active tectonism (e.g. the west coast of South America). In general these latter shelves are also deeper and steeper. On a global average, the shelf is c. 78 km wide, with an average depth of the shelf break being c.135 m. These large scale features aside, the morphology and sedimentology of individual continental shelves is dictated by the complex interplay of both modern and geo-historical factors, including: global and regional fluctuations in sea-level; variability in sediment input rates and sources; and finally modes and rates of sediment transport. Inevitably, these processes not only affect the geological variability of shelves but also play a major role in determining their archaeological potential.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://doi.org/10.5284/1000039

description: A link to the web service or dataset

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/

description: A link to the general host site

Unique resource identifier

code

COLL_ID_1000866

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::27700

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

structure

environment

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Keyword set

keyword value

Keyword set

keyword value

originating controlled vocabulary

title

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2008-01-06

Keyword set

keyword value

originating controlled vocabulary

title

SeaDataNet P021 parameter discovery vocabulary

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2009-11-16

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-16.0768

East bounding longitude

8.4858

North bounding latitude

62.3819

South bounding latitude

43.4261

Extent

Extent group

authority code

title

SeaDataNet vertical extent keywords

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2010-01-01

code identifying the extent

inapplicable

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2003-03-03

End position

2004-03-30

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-10-17

Frequency of update

notPlanned

Quality and validity

Lineage

This dataset was collected by Justin Dix, Rory Quinn, Kieran Westley and provided to the Archaeology Data Service for long term archive and management.

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/advice/termsOfUseAndAccess

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/advice/termsOfUseAndAccess

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

Data Manager

organisation name

University of Southampton School of Ocean and Earth Science

email address

uqenquiry@noc.soton.ac.uk

responsible party role

originator

Responsible party

organisation name

Archaeology Data Service

email address

help@archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

responsible party role

custodian

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

Archaeology Data Service

email address

help@archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2022-07-22

Metadata language

eng