Theme:
7. Archaeology of Sustainability through World Crises, Climate Change and War
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
'Archaeologies of Climate Change?: Current issues and future directions
Content:
Global warming is currently one of the biggest societal challenges that also affects scientific disciplines like archaeology. This was emphasized by the ‘EAA 2021 Kiel Statement on Archaeology and Climate Change’. The effects of climatic changes on ancient civilizations have been studied since the early 20th century, but the range of research topics regarding climate change and archaeology has expanded considerably in recent years. In this session we seek to gain a deeper understanding of the thematic interdependencies among the many contemporary ’archaeology of climate change’ by mapping these fields of research and their diversity. This involves a broad range of topics, from new, interdisciplinary approaches to research on the impact and social response to climate change in the past, over threats to archaeological heritage due to climate change today and the relevance of insights from archaeologies’ unique long-term perspective for the present and future challenges of global warming. Not least, climate change communication is also becoming an acute topic in archaeological practice, from sustainable excavation methods to public outreach, from carbon-reduction in conference organization to museum exhibitions. We invite scholars from all archaeologies and adjacent disciplines to present their latest theoretical, methodological as well as case study-based work to discuss the following questions:
- How do current experiences and societal debates influence our hypothesis and narratives of the past regarding climate change?
- What terminology and interdisciplinary methodologies need further development to research climatic changes and climate related hazards in the past?
- How is global warming endangering archaeological sites and what measures could be taken to ensure their preservation?
- How can we translate archaeological research results to relevant publics, and what are major hurdles?
With these questions, we would like to carve out the current debates, to explore the future avenues for the ‘archaeologies of climate change’.
Keywords:
Societal Responses to Climate Change, Hazards and Disasters, Resilience and Vulnerability, Sustainability, Archaeological Heritage, Epistemologies
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Caroline Heitz (Switzerland) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Felix Riede (Denmark) 3,4
Amy Bogaard (United Kingdom) 5
Albert Hafner (Switzerland) 1,2
Abel Ruiz-Giralt (Spain) 6
Affiliations:
1. University of Bern, Institute of Archaeological Sciences
2. University of Bern, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research
3. Aarhus University, School of Culture and Society, Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies
4. Aarhus University, iCLIMATE Aarhus University Interdisciplinary Centre for Climate Change
5. University of Oxford, School of Archaeology
6. Culture, Archaeology and Socio-Ecological Dynamics, Universitat Pompeu Fàbra
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