Where Power, Policy, and Practice Intersect: Archaeology within Block Island’s Great Salt Pond Archaeological District

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Power to the People: Cultural Resource Investigations along Utility Lines Giving a Voice to Past and Present Communities" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Block Island Wind Farm, the nation’s first offshore wind project, was the first in a series of significant renewable energy projects proposed along the southern New England coast. At only five wind turbines, the Project served as a unique pilot study that required balancing federal policy, tribal concerns, historic preservation, and archaeological research with the nation’s desire to reduce its overall carbon emissions. This presentation will discuss the Project, which with the assistance of the Narragansett and Wampanoag Indian Tribal Nations, led to the discovery of the significant Harbor Pond precontact Native American archaeological site and the partial archaeological study of a substantial Late Archaic (5000–3000 BP) archaeological component on Rhode Island’s largest offshore island.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Power to the People: Cultural Resource Investigations along Utility Lines Giving a Voice to Past and Present Communities   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40392.0