Post-medieval Archaeology and Pollution
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2023
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Post-medieval Archaeology and Pollution," at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
This session focuses on the environmental aspects of underwater and terrestrial sites and post-medieval archaeology. Despite historical and archaeological significance, heritage sites may also be a source of pollution – be that today or in history. Active pollution such as oil spillages from shipwrecks or from industrial sites due to leakage or erosion affects our daily lives but our lived environment can also be affected by post-medieval mining practices or even early nature conservation laws to name a few. The visitors and researchers of heritage sites can have an environmental impact on the area from littering to destroying flora and fauna on varying scales. The significance of such impacts extends from effects on small communities to off-world places through e.g. lunar exploration and proposed exploitation. This session welcomes papers that deal with these and similar aspects and issues of post-medieval (in its broadest sense) heritage sites without geographic restrictions.
Site Name Keywords
Hüti glassworks
Other Keywords
Plastic •
london •
value •
Glass production •
Waste •
conservation laws •
Estonia •
Rubbish •
Contemporary World •
oil shale
Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview •
Collections Research •
Records Search / Inventory Checking •
Site Evaluation / Testing •
Historic Background Research •
Remote Sensing
Material Types
Glass
Temporal Keywords
17th - 19th centuries •
Historical Archaeology
Geographic Keywords
Europe (Continent) •
AUSTRIA •
Republic of Austria (Country) •
Republic of Estonia (Country) •
Estonia •
Tirol (State / Territory) •
Vorarlberg (State / Territory) •
Oberosterreich (State / Territory) •
Salzburg (State / Territory) •
Burgenland (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-4 of 4)
- Documents (4)
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Archaeology of Modern Pollution (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Post-medieval Archaeology and Pollution", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Pollution as part of archaeological sites does not necessarily have to be part of the primary research question or period under study. It can also be part of the taphonomic processes that occur after the site has been abandoned by its former inhabitants, while excavations are taking place there, and when it eventually becomes a site of...
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Blaes and Bings: Reimagining the West Lothian Oil Shale Industry (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Post-medieval Archaeology and Pollution", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In this paper I explore changing valuations of oil shale waste – blaes– in West Lothian, Scotland. Around 150 million cubic metres of blaes remains here in vast heaps called bings, the remnants of a short-lived but globally significant oil industry, active between 1851 and 1962. While the bings are relatively nontoxic, they are...
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Environmental Impact of Glass Production in Post-Medieval Estonia (2023)
DOCUMENT Full-Text
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Post-medieval Archaeology and Pollution", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Glass production is and was an industry that exhausts natural resources. The destruction of forests surrounding early post-medieval glassworks in Europe was a given - the glassworks would often simply move to the next spot after depleting their resource of fuel and potash. The extraction of sand also had an environmental impact. The...
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Stinking Foreshore To Tree-lined Avenue: Rethinking The Cleansing Of The Sewage Filled River Thames of Mid Nineteenth Century London (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Post-medieval Archaeology and Pollution", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Nineteenth century London saw rapid population growth, leaving traditional methods of sewage removal unable to cope with the volume of waste being produced. Waves of cholera left disjointed city government unable to provide clean drinking water and remove waste. By 1858 the Thames was a gigantic sewer, which combined with unseasonable...