Sea-Level Rise, Climate Change, and the Geoarchaeology of Barbuda: A Systematic Survey of Seaview / Indian Town Trail

Summary

This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and other climate-related hazards pose threats to coastlines around the world. Understanding these nuanced processes sheds light on the risks that local communities and heritage managers face, as well as on the longer-term impacts of human activity over the coasts. This presentation shares the progress of our geoarchaeological research on Seaview and Indian Town Trail in Barbuda. Initial analysis identified the ecological and physical processes that changed coastal morphology as sea level rose from the Early Holocene to the present. These processes explain the erosion rate and coastal retreat of the extant coastal dune ridge that exposes the coastal lowlands to sea level rise inundation under future climate scenarios. During the 2023 expedition, the NSF IRES International Research Effort conducted a systematic survey of Seaview and Indian Town Trail successfully assessing the severity of inland erosion and soil degradation, modern and historic uses of the land, the distribution of archaeological refuse, and the relationship between those two important sites of the indigenous past of Barbuda. This type of study design is particularly urgent for tropical oceanic islands, where accelerated climate change and disaster capitalism are pressing social vulnerability and threatening the continuity of islander identities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39549.0