Sea-level rise and subsidence effects on Gulf Coast archaeological site distributions

This article examines the archaeological effects of two major geologic factors, eustatic sea-level rise and land subsidence, on the archaeological site distributions of low-energy coastlines. It describes an inexpensive, quick approach to identify these effects, which exploits the interpretive value of state-maintained archaeological site location files. The application of this approach to the Mississippi Gulf Coast suggests that coastal sires older than roughly 3500 B.P: were submerged or destroyed by eustatic sea-level rise; more recent sites were affected little by this process. Among subsidence factors, endogenic or deep-earth subsidence has had little impact on local site distributions. Exogenic or surficial subsidence processes, however are sufficient to explain the temporal gradient of tidally inundated marsh sites.