MAN ON THE CONTINENTAL SHELF *

It has been 10 years since we wrote our “Archeological Potential of the Continental Shelf.”’ It was an exciting prospect to think about then and still is today. Had you asked us in 1965 whether the fact of man’s presence on the shelf would be demonstrated within 10 years, we would have said “yes,” without hesitation. However, here we are, 10 years and many research cruises later, much wiser, still enthusiastic, and still without evidence. This paper particularly addresses the area between Montauk Point and Delaware Bay, an area in which we believe we have the best chance of demonstrating man’s presence during the Holocene. Our general understanding of dynamic processes on the nearby continental shelf has increased in the past 10 years, and progress continues to be made. None of the work directly concerns the archeological aspects, but much of it is of interest to archeologists. By now it is common knowledge that the continental shelf has been exposed as dry land during the several major glacial periods of the Pleistocene. The general sea-level changes that occurred during the Wisconsin are now known for all major areas of the world in the timing and extent of sea-level fall. There are differences that are usually explainable between areas, but there is little reason to doubt that the sea level dropped about 130 m in this region at the height of the Wisconsin. Different authorities have somewhat different ideas about the rates of rise and fall of sea level, but there is no disagreement about the facts in general. The sea level curve presented in F I G U R E 1 is for the east coast of North America. It is a smooth curve, based on a variety of sample materials, and does not purport t o be anything more than that. For this area the material collected so far does not make it possible to detect perturbations in the rise, although we will later discuss some evidence that suggests that they have occurred. Since 1965 our knowledge of the action of the transgressing ocean on the land has increased tremendously, as illustrated by the work of geologists like Kraft3i4 in the Delaware Bay area, the efforts at synthesis of the geological work on the continental margin by Burk and Drake,s and work on the dynamics of sediments being done by Swift69’ and his colleagues. Swift is presently working in this area in connection with the problem of waste disposal in the ocean. Much of the geologic work is highly technical and as yet does not lend itself to easy generalizations about the effect of transgression on the land features that are now covered. The work of Kraft certainly suggests that any record left