Archaeology of rivers

To submit papers and posters visit: http://www.eaa2017maastricht.nl/ Since the prehistory, different human groups have chosen to settle along the rivers as well as around the lakeshores of many European lakes. The presence of fresh water, of food, like fishes and molluscs, material resources and the possibility to use the water as a mean of movement and of transport, or as a natural defence against beasts and enemies, have often been at the base of this this choice. Born in the 19th century on the Alpine Lakes of Switzerland, the European Underwater archaeology has always been attracted by the study of the specific environment of rivers and lakes. But, while on the one hand at its early stage, the discipline was mainly linked to the investigation of the pile dwellings dating from the Late Neolithic to the Iron Age, in recent years the agenda has changed a lot. The discovery of submerged Mesolithic camp sites, of rich deposits of late prehistoric weaponry and utensils found in watery contexts, the possibility to recognize the traces of Roman and Medieval bridges, of mills, of fisheries, of port installations or of wrecks, have in fact transformed the waters of rivers and lakes in a new archaeological domain, possibly one of the archaeologically most interesting environments. The consequent increase of the underwater archaeological researches has unveiled, particularly in recent years, many information referring to different periods, as well as shed light to important historical events. The possibility to investigate the waterbasins of European lakes, as well as of the rivers running among different countries, has in fact enabled researchers to discover many new sites and wrecks that demonstrate a great vitality of these environments and the role that some of them have played in some crucial historical event. Through the millennia, rivers and lakes have not only hosted the people who had decided to build their home next to the water. Particularly in central Europe, rivers valleys have been often used as primary communication and transport corridors, and rivers themselves were used as waterways, for moving and for trading, and they have often been considered as political and cultural borders by different countries. Rivers and lakes have often been places where peoples could have met and, in some occasions, fought. Often forgotten, the memory of this long relationship between men and freshwaters, hidden under the surface, is nowadays constantly coming back to light.