An Undiscovered Country No Longer: The Archaeology of An Early Hunting Site Beneath Lake Huron

Since the initial discovery of early hunting sites beneath Lake Huron, archaeologists have worked to produce a progressively more detailed picture of the ancient environment and of the way human groups came to occupy and exploit the newly exposed landscape. These sites have been explored using a wide variety of methods, from sonar and remote operated vehicles (ROVs) to direct excavation by SCUBA trained archaeologists. More recently, the research tool kit has expanded to include artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and the extraction of ancient environmental DNA. While much is now known about these early hunters, many questions remain to be answered, such as the nature of their earliest sites, what relationship did they have with the peoples living around the lake, and what ultimately happened to the early hunters when the lake levels again began to rise? The talk will conclude with some thoughts on the possible answers.

Lecturer – John O’Shea

John O’Shea is the Curator of Great Lakes Archaeology at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology and Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He received his PhD in Prehistoric Archaeology from Cambridge University. He has directed major field projects focused on Bronze Age societies in Hungary, Romania, and Serbia, and on late pre-contact cultures in North America. His current work is focused on underwater archaeology in the Great Lakes, where his research involves both historic shipwrecks and ancient submerged hunting sites.