Projects using remotely operated underwater vehicles, side-scan sonar, and sediment coring to investigate the submerged shelf are in various stages of development.

Finding specific sites on a submerged landmass of enormous extent is daunting, but the technology for doing so is improving rapidly.

Ancient DNA analysis continues to advance at a pace that has repeatedly surprised even specialists.

Methods that were not technically feasible a decade ago are now routine.

The analysis of ancient DNA from sediment — environmental DNA deposited by organisms passing through an area, not requiring actual human remains — has opened possibilities for documenting human presence in archaeological contexts where physical remains are absent.

Applied to Last Glacial Maximum sediments in contexts where other evidence suggests human presence, environmental DNA analysis might eventually add biological detail to the picture that footprints and stone tools alone cannot provide.