The Most Important Contribution Historical Archaeology Can Make to the Situation of Climate Change

DOCUMENT Citation Only George Hambrecht.

The study of aDNA has become a highly productive avenue of study in Archaeolgoy, though perhaps less so in Historical Archaeology. This paper discusses a project in which aDNA from historic sites is being used to address many important issues typically approached by Historical Archaeology. Yet this project goes further in two specific ways.  First this project intends to map and when possible isolate genetic variation that has been lost in modern day domesitc animals but that can still be found...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeffrey Altschul.

How humans respond to climate change has been identified as one of archaeology's grand challenges. Traditionally, archaeologists correlate local or regional environmental reconstructions with human settlement to form post hoc inferences about adaptive and social responses to changes in climate and associated environmental resources. Regardless the logical strength of these explanations, rarely can they be generalized beyond the case study. To offer general statements about human adaptation to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marcy Rockman.

In the most recent Summary for Policy Makers from the IPCC Working Group II (Adaptation), this statement, "Throughout history, people and societies have adjusted to and coped with climate, climate variability, and extremes, with varying degrees of success," is written without attribution.  Though this statement is a consensus view, the absence of a footnote disconnects it from analyses of the human past and the models of adaptation developed in the IPCC reports. This is a big gap. The most...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tad Britt.

Connecting specific site ecology, adaptation strategies, and location selection preferences for residential and mining resources at Death Valley National Park, the objectives of this study, are key tools that archeologists bring to the situation of climate change.  We use an ecological niche modeling approach that identifies bias as well as preference for site selection.  Specifically, the models output predict suitability and probability of where specific site types are situated across the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sara F. Mascia.

For well over a century Historical Archaeologists have been faced with the persistent problem of losing archaeological sites to development.  Recently, another challenge has come to the forefront – how these sites are being adversely affected by climate change.   Many of the problems encountered were the result of either increased coastal flooding or flooding in areas where former watercourses have been diverted, altered, or filled to accommodate development.   In the last decade, requests for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeneva Wright.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. To date, however, archaeologists are still developing their relevancy and role in informing climate change research, management strategies, and understanding. Coastal and underwater archaeological research has significant potential to offer insights into past human adaptations to climate change, and to provide an anthropogenic lens through which the history of climate change might be viewed. In addition to providing historical...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Gadsby. Lindsey Cochran.

Historical archaeologists examine material culture dating to the industrial period, which spawned human-induced climate change. We are uniquely positioned to examine changes through the material record. Additionally archeologists have been making and recording observations about the condition of sites for many years. Archeologists in the National Park Service (NPS) have, in doing so, inadvertently left their own record of climate change effects. These observations are stored in NPS’s...