Urban Archaeology: Down by the Water

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Urban Archaeology: Down by the Water," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The archaeology of urban spaces brings the past, present, and future crashing together in a complex network of archaeologists, historic preservationists, residents, tourists, governments, developers, and other stakeholders. This session will be the first in a series dedicated to assessing the current state of urban archaeology, highlighting the important research emerging from cities, and candidly discussing the challenges posed by this environment. Over the past few decades, urban waterfronts, often formerly industrial landscapes, have undergone significant redevelopment and revitalization, with various impacts to historic resources. This has resulted in massive excavations along city shores, presenting archaeologists with both amazing opportunities for understanding the urban past and new challenges in managing, curating, interpreting, and communicating these finds. Presenters are encouraged to submit papers on the archaeology of urban waterfronts. These papers may be research driven, methodological or public interpretation focused, or on the state and future of archaeology in urban settings.