{"id":56765,"date":"2016-06-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/researchers-from-uris-graduate-school-of-oceanography-tribal-representatives-to-take-four-day-expedition-to-rhode-island-sound-to-survey-submerged-ancient-sites\/"},"modified":"2016-06-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T00:00:00","slug":"researchers-from-uris-graduate-school-of-oceanography-tribal-representatives-to-take-four-day-expedition-to-rhode-island-sound-to-survey-submerged-ancient-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2016\/06\/researchers-from-uris-graduate-school-of-oceanography-tribal-representatives-to-take-four-day-expedition-to-rhode-island-sound-to-survey-submerged-ancient-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers from 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography, tribal representatives to take four-day expedition to Rhode Island Sound to survey submerged ancient sites"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tNARRAGANSETT, R.I., June 1, 2016\u2014The 溏心vlog免费B站 research vessel Endeavor will depart Sunday, June 5 for a four-day expedition to study submerged Native American cultural sites in Rhode Island Sound.<\/p>\n

John W. King, a professor of marine geology at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography, will lead the trip, which is part of a five-year $2 million project to identify underwater ancient sites on the Outer Continental Shelf.<\/p>\n


\nThe study is a team effort involving GSO, the U.S. Department of the Interior\u2019s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office, and the state Coastal Resources Management Council.<\/p>\n


\nThe goal is to develop \u201cbest practice\u201d national protocols for identifying and protecting ancient Native American cultural sites preserved on the ocean floor. Known as \u201cdrowned sites,\u201d these areas were submerged by rising sea levels caused by melting ice sheets over the last 23,000 years. Scientists\u2014and tribal oral historians\u2014believe Native Americans lived there when the area was dry land.<\/p>\n


\nThe team\u2019s findings will help the federal government, tribal communities and states carefully evaluate offshore wind-energy projects on the continental shelf, and their impact on cultural sites. The study is in its fourth year.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe cruise has two goals. First, we\u2019re developing survey methods for identifying and avoiding or mitigating damage to these ancient sites,\u201d says King. \u201cSecond, we\u2019re trying to train tribal historic preservation officers in our scientific methods, while also learning about tribal interpretations of features observed on submerged landscapes.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBesides King, others participating on the trip are: David Robinson, a marine archaeologist at GSO; Brian Jordan, a program officer at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; Doug Harris, of the Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office; GSO students and staff members; and representatives of tribes in the Northeast, including the Nipmucs, Wampanoags and Micmacs.<\/p>\n


\nThe ship will be equipped with telepresence technology so researchers on the vessel will be able to communicate via satellite with scientists at 溏心vlog免费B站’s Inner Space Center on the Narragansett Bay Campus. Tribal members will also be present at the center during the telecasts.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThis is a unique opportunity for scientists, tribes and federal and state officials to work together on this important issue,\u201d says King. \u201cIf successful, we will significantly improve the process to evaluate off-shore development projects, including those involving wind energy.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nResearchers will first conduct surveys of sediments below the sea floor to pinpoint potential sites for sampling. Once identified, they will take 20-foot long core samples to find out what’s in the sediment.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe sediment can confirm if the environment back then was marine or dry land,\u201d says King. \u201cThe core can also tell us if humans were in the area. If we detect certain kinds of pollen, for example, that would indicate humans probably cleared the land to live.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe public can view the expedition\u2019s activities by visiting Inner Space Center<\/a>. <\/p>\n


\nSince its christening in 1976, the Endeavor has embarked on more than 500 scientific cruises, ranging from the waters off Block Island to the Galapagos Islands in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. King\u2019s cruise is sponsored by the Rhode Island Endeavor Program and the Northeastern Regional Ocean Council.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: back row, in middle, John W. King, a professor of marine geology at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography, and his team on the Endeavor last year. Photo courtesy of John King.\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NARRAGANSETT, R.I., June 1, 2016\u2014The 溏心vlog免费B站 research vessel Endeavor will depart Sunday, June 5 for a four-day expedition to study submerged Native American cultural sites in Rhode Island Sound. John W. King, a professor of marine geology at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography, will lead the trip, which is part of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}