DC 1: Vulnerable Coastal Stone Age: Current environmental threats, challenges and prospects for the preservation of archaeological locations

Objectives 

1. To identify and analyze the diverse threats of Stone Age (STA) hunter-fisher-gatherer (HFG) locations due to climate change in different environments, and to discuss and propose potential adaptation measures for their preservation. The analysis will include a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective across Europe. The situation along the Spanish coast, where many STA are/will be threatened by extreme events on met-ocean conditions (wave and wind action) and sea level rise, and of STA coastal sites in Norway, which today are placed in the inland/woods due to elevation processes are compared. Methods involve: coastal processes modelling and existing databases, digital geological and archaeological mapping, shoreline reconstruction. 
2. To explore the environmental threats caused by climate change (sea-level rise, coastal flooding, increased seawater temperatures, modified chemical composition of oceans, geohazards) on STA sites in the coastal zone of Atlantic Europe and Norway (types of threats, impact on coastal heritage, adaptation measures). 
3. Promote the initial set-off of a network specifically addressing the impact of climate change on coastal cultural locations. Liaising with other disciplines, selected academic and non-academic institutions to maximize the knowledge available, identify gaps and mobilize EU and non-EU relevant actors. 

Expected results 

1. New knowledge on environmental threats due to climate change and their consequences specific to STA sites in Atlantic Europe. 
2. Highly increased basis for decision making in cultural resource management of coastal STA sites in Atlantic Europe based on innovative comparative case studies (e.g Spain, Norway). 
3. Increase awareness on safeguarding endangered maritime and coastal cultural heritage. 
4. Alignment /synergies with coastal cultural heritage under threat projects, to reinforce the EU’s socio-cultural identity. 
5. Acknowledge the need to involve other disciplines (archaeology, cultural heritage studies, social anthropology) in order to broaden the scope and achieve a more integral approach.