Can archaeology provide an evidence base for Realistic Disaster Scenarios that contribute to reducing vulnerability?

Summary

Extreme climatic events and natural disasters often have a recurrence periodicity beyond that of ethnographic, sociological and, at times, even historical investigation. In a deep historical perspective focused on geo-cultural heritage, however, human communities have been affected by numerous kinds of natural disasters that may provide useful data for scenario-based risk reduction management vis-à-vis future calamities. Using selected past volcanic eruptions as examples and merging Lee Clarke’s sociological argument for ‘possibilistic thinking’ and David Staley’s notion of ‘historical thinking’ with a concern for contemporary and future resilience, this papers suggests that such comparative, cross-cultural ‘palaeosocial’ information on the constellations of vulnerability and resilience pertinent to deep-time disasters can be employed usefully in Realistic Disaster Scenarios (RDSs).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Historical Ecology for Applied Archaeology: Climate Change, Resource Management, and Governance

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 13238