Project Deukalion is the precursor to SPLASHCOS, and came into being in July 2008, at the 4th IKUWA Conference in London, on the initiative of Nic Flemming and Dimitris Sakellariou, as an informal group of European colleagues. The aim was to develop ideas about a large-scale research project on the submerged landscapes of Europe, with a view to attracting large-scale funding from the European Framework Programme. The project takes its name from the Ancient Greek myth of Deukalion, which is the equivalent of the Biblical myth of Noah.
The group met four times in 2008 and 2009, in Santander, Frankfurt, Athens and Southampton, with an agenda to compare experience in different research centres, to explore contacts and opportunities within the EU for promoting the field of Submerged Landscape Archaeology as a recognised field of research funding, and to prepare a large-scale grant application. Discussion took the form of developing a series of Work Packages, each dedicated to a different aspect of the research agenda.
It was the Deukalion Project that gave rise to the proposal to apply for network funding through the COST programme, and hence to the successful setting up of SPLASHCOS as a COST Trans-Domain Action (COST Action TD0902). Subsequent meetings have coincided with SPLASHCOS meetings. In 2010, it was decided to rename the Project Deukalion Group as the Deukalion Planning Group, or DPG. The DPG continues to maintain its status as an independent group dedicated to lobbying for Framework funding and the development of research proposals, but with a close relationship to the wider SPLASHCOS membership. All its members are also members of SPLASHCOS
The current DPG membership comprises the following: Pablo Arias (ES), Geoff Bailey (UK) (Vice-Chair), Francesco Latino Chiocci(IT), Katerina Dellaporta (GR), Justin Dix (UK), Anders Fischer (DK), Nic Flemming (UK), Vince Gaffney (UK), Ole Grøn (DK), Jostein Gundersen (NO), Jan Harff (DE), Gilles Lericolais (FR), Friedrich Lueth (DE), Garry Momber (UK), Hans Peeters (NL), Dimitris Sakellariou (GR) (Chair), Julie Satchell (UK), and Achim Wehrmann (DE).
The links below detail the draft Work Packages that have been developed so far. These are works in progress and are not for citation or publication.
The Work Packages have been designed to fit together as an integrated set, on the assumption that there might be a future opportunity to apply for large-scale funding in the form of a Large Integrated Project.
Equally, the Work Packages are amenable to being developed as stand-alone documents, in the expectation that we may have to be flexible and to tailor individual Work Packages to specific funding calls under the Framework Programme.
