In Hot Water: Climate Change and Underwater Archaeology

Summary

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 data towards modern climate change study and debate, underwater archaeology can also serve as an important avenue for public engagement, mobilizing public interest and action towards understanding the impacts of climate change. This paper discusses the threats that climate change poses to underwater archaeological resources, the challenges confronting submerged cultural resource managers, and the contributions underwater archaeology offers to the global climate change dialogue.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Most Important Contribution Historical Archaeology Can Make to the Situation of Climate Change   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 727