In the Caribbean archipelago, the rare underwater pre-Columbian remains identified to date have been generally found in shallow waters on coastal margins, such as the site of Los Buchillones in Cuba, Colas Islet or Chasse Islet in... more
In the Caribbean archipelago, the rare underwater pre-Columbian remains identified to date have been generally found in shallow waters on coastal margins, such as the site of Los Buchillones in Cuba, Colas Islet or Chasse Islet in Guadeloupe. New discoveries in the Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin in Guadeloupe are of a very different kind. After the first findings by scuba divers in 2012, a set of systematic surveys were carried out in 2016 : they enabled us to gather 160 lithic artifacts at more than 1 km offshore. They were scattered on the seabed between 2.50 m and 4 m of depth. The collection is only composed by andesite macrolithic tools. The most spectacular ones are axe blades and abrading tools such as grinding stones, mortars and circular-shaped polissoirs. We also found a large quantity of elongated pebbles with percussion marks. The status of this wide set of scattered artifacts is still indeterminated. It could result from multiple navigation events over the centuries causing cargoes losses. Another assumption is that these artifacts are remains of pre-Columbian settlements or camps located on a paleoshoreline which have been submerged by the result of the post-glacial sea-level rise, or because of great storms causing erosion of the substrate. The hypothesis of a submersion of preceramic sites by sea-level rise is reinforced by the discovery of a peat layer at a depth around 5 m dated between 4000-5000 BC and containing pieces of fresh water trees reflecting a terrestrial
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