Threats Abound: Responding to Climate Change and Planning for the Future at Jamestown Island

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Heritage at Risk: Shifting Responses from Reactive to Proactive" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Impacts of climate change on riverine and coastal environs have been felt by people throughout the Middle Atlantic and Jamestown Island for thousands of years. Threats to the island include: rising sea level, tidal surge, inundation, erosion and the impacts of the increasing strength and quantities of major storm events. In addition, the newly recognized threat of rising groundwater now also impacts the cultural resources of Jamestown Island. Archaeologists and leaders from the National Park Service, Colonial National Historical Park, and Jamestown Rediscovery have been working to document the impacts and plan for the future of Jamestown Island. This paper discusses the threats facing the archaeological sites, identifying what has been and could be lost in the future on Jamestown Island, and how the National Park Service is working to study, plan, and prepare for a future with increasing environmental impacts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Heritage at Risk: Shifting Responses from Reactive to Proactive

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 984