Archaeology in the Unfolding Aftermath: Creative Mitigation of Anthropogenic Disasters in New Orleans and the Mississippi River Delta

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Equity in the Archaeology of Disaster, Past, Present, and Future" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Louisiana has been called a state of disaster. The flooding of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 drew national attention to the effects of social inequalities, unpreparedness, and key vulnerabilities. Five years later, a catastrophic explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig produced the largest marine oil spill in history. Hurricane Ida in 2021 devastated parishes in the Mississippi River petrochemical corridor sometimes referred to as “Cancer Alley.” Environmental, economic, and infrastructural impact response and recovery in the aftermath of those disasters involved cultural resource management (CRM) archaeology, including site monitoring and alternative mitigation. These events transpired in the context of coastal erosion, subsidence, sea-level rise, and intensifying storm surges. Archaeological perspectives on landscapes and deep history reveal such engineered disasters are inextricably linked to anthropogenic environmental changes and social inequality. An archaeology of disaster and equity focused on environmental justice and the heritage of vulnerable communities requires creative mitigation rarely pursued in CRM.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Equity in the Archaeology of Disaster, Past, Present, and Future   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37787.0