Theme:
7. Archaeology of Sustainability through World Crises, Climate Change and War
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Wetland Archaeology: Advances in Practice and Policy in the 21st Century
Content:
Wetland Archaeology can give exceptional insight into past lives. With unparalleled preservation conditions, archaeological finds from wetland environments have gained far-reaching wider cultural importance. The last 30 years of wetland archaeological research has been dominated by investigation aimed at capitalising on those conditions to illuminate the past, especially histories of changing environmental conditions, alongside work aimed at understanding how wetland conditions have and are changing with a view to ensure in situ preservation of these sensitive and important archaeological deposits. However, there are new horizons for wetland archaeology as broader efforts to combat climate change and catastrophic declines in biodiversity are implicating, utilising, and championing wetland environments; often in a very direct sense, reversing the decades and centuries of drainage, reclamation and marginalisation which was responsible for both the creation and destruction of the archaeological record. Wetlands of various kinds are often regarded as the ‘low-hanging-fruit’ for restoration in mitigating climate change to, for example, reduce the impacts of floods or sequester carbon. These restoration, rewilding, and carbon capture initiatives are a ‘brave new world’ for wetland archaeology with new threats emerging for the ways in which wetland archaeology is protected and managed in most jurisdictions. This session aims to take stock of new turns in wetland archaeology theory, practices and policy set within the context of global, national, regional, and local efforts to mitigate climate change and reverse declines in biodiversity. We seek papers from all wetland archaeological contexts, from the conceptual to practical, that deal with these new realities, moving beyond simplistic, single-direction narratives. Papers communicating new wetland archaeology management policy or practice with respect to ecological restoration and carbon sequestration policies are particularly welcome.
Keywords:
wetland archaeology, policy and practice, climate change, biodiversity, managment
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:
Michael Stratigos (United Kingdom) 1
Co-organisers:
Madeleine McLeester (United States) 2
Mans Schepers (Netherlands) 3
Affiliations:
1. University of Aberdeen
2. Dartmouth College
3. University of Groningen
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