Buried beneath the sea: m apping the archeological potential o f the
Belgian Continental shelf
De Clercq Maikel, Tine Missiaen and Z urita Hurtado Oscar
Renard Centre o f Marine Geology, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281, S8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
E-mail: Maikel.DeClerca@UGent.be
In recent years a large num ber o f archaeological discoveries have been made in the North Sea,
ranging from p rehistoric landscapes to buried archaeological structures as well as artefacts and
palaeontological remains. In view o f the increasing pressure o f com m ercial activities at sea it is
therefore tim e ly to map th is cu ltural heritage before large parts o f it are irreversibly lost. The need
fo r action is fu rth e r stressed by the unique setting o f the Belgian part o f the North Sea (BCP) which
is m arked by a th in layer o f Pleistocene deposits th a t are constantly being reworked in a sedim ent
starved setting, and as a result p rehistoric archaeological artefacts and sites may occur at lim ited
depth and are therefore extrem ely vulnerable.
The proposed research involves the developm ent o f so-called ‘ p otential m aps’ o f the BCP indicating
the se nsitivity o f marine areas to human settlem ent and settlem ent remnants. This w ill be done by
integrating palaeogeographical inform a tion (which buried landscapes and coastlines have been
preserved, w hat did they look like) w ith e xisting archaeological and historical inform ation. This w ill
result in BD geo-archaeological ‘ preservation m odels’ th a t can then be translated into 2D
archaeological ‘ potential m aps’ th a t ide ntify the key archaeological zones in the BCP.
Such potential maps are crucial fo r a sustainable m anagem ent o f the underw ater cultural heritage in
Belgium. They w ill not only help to save tim e and m oney in industrial projects as high risk zones
can be identified in an early stage o f planning, b ut w ill also reduce the risk fo r damage to the
archaeological heritage (or loss, in some cases). A t the same tim e these maps w ill also yield a better
insight into the response o f coastal landscapes to past sea-level changes which w ill allow a better
understanding o f the present-day changes in the coastal area. But m ost o f all the maps w ill
dem onstrate th a t artefacts, settlem ents and whole cultural landscapes can be preserved underwater
- and m oreover th a t th ey provide rich inform a tion on ancient genetics and population m igrations.
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