More Like this

1. Embedding the remote sensing monitoring of archaeological site damage at the local level: Results from the “Archaeological practice and heritage protection in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” project

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269796  

   Laugier, Elise Jakoby; Abdullatif, Nawzad; Glatz, Claudia (June 2022, PLOS ONE)

   Asouti, Eleni (Ed.)

   Today, the satellite-based monitoring of archaeological sites and site damage is a widespread practice, especially in conflict-affected regions. However, the vast majority of these remote sensing cultural heritage monitoring efforts have been led and conducted by remote researchers, and there remains an urgent need to embed this work within existing, in-country institutions at local and regional levels. Here, we present the archaeological site monitoring approach and results from the project Archaeological Practice and Heritage Protection in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq , a collaborative project between the Sirwan Regional Project and Kurdish Iraqi archaeologists aimed at generating a fully functional and sustainable programme of archaeological site management co-created with, and managed by, Kurdish Iraqi archaeologists and antiquities officials. Between August 2018 and February 2020, 376 archaeological sites in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala River Valley region, located in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, were assessed for damage by Kurdish Iraqi archaeologists in collaboration with the Sirwan Regional Project. This work represents the first large-scale, systematic dataset of archaeological site conditions and longer-term damage in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Our results show that 86.7% of the assessed archaeological sites and 38.6% of the site surface area in this region were affected by damage between 1951–2018, and demonstrate the great urgency with which action must be taken to develop appropriate safeguarding measures for the KRI’s archaeological heritage. On the basis of these results, we outline relevant recommendations for the immediate protection of archaeological sites in Garmian and the greater Kurdistan Region. 

   more » « less
2. Cultural-ecosystem resilience is vital yet under-considered in coastal restoration

   https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01758-z  

   Mehta, Jayur Madhusudan; Chamberlain, Elizabeth L (December 2023, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications)

   Abstract As large areas of the Mississippi River Delta (MRD) of the USA disappear into the sea, present-day communities and cultural resources are lost. While the land loss may be readily quantified, describing the impact of cultural losses is less straightforward because cultural elements are frequently less tangible and difficult to map, identify, and categorize. The elision of cultural components of landscapes and ecosystems is evident in restoration practices and policies, although numerous scholars have identified the interlinked processes of culture and ecology as critical to rebuilding healthy and resilient environments. We define and measure cultural-ecosystem resilience (CER) in the Mississippi River Delta through analyses of Indigenous oral histories, mound-building practices and settlement patterns, and the persistence and reuse of archaeological sites. CER describes a system containing resilient properties embedded in human-natural settings including river deltas that may manifest in oral cultural traditions, architecture, and the selection of habitable environments. Our interdisciplinary approach demonstrates the role of human-modified landscapes in generating resilience for past and present coastal communities and highlights the importance of consulting records of historic and modern Indigenous traditions in shaping sustainable landscape-management strategies. Results show that archaeological earthen and shell mounds made by Native American Gulf Coast and MRD communities have been persistent features that endured for centuries and are sited in regions of high multicultural value within the dynamic delta. Yet, we document the rapid 20th-century loss of mounds due to coastal erosion, industry, and other human land-use practices. Present-day and future coastal land loss endangers what remains of these keystone features and thus lowers the resilience of modern Mississippi River Delta communities. 

   more » « less
3. Transformative Impacts of Sea-Level Rise, Storm Surge, and Wetland Migration on Intertidal Native Shell-Bearing Sites in Florida’s Largest Open-Water Estuary, Tampa Bay, Florida, USA

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-024-01329-8  

   Rogers, Jaime A.; Jackson, Kendal (February 2024, Estuaries and Coasts)

   Although shell middens and mounds often occupy the same intertidal spaces as coastal wetlands, biophysical interactions between these cultural features and wetlands are under-investigated. To this end, our geoarchaeological and zooarchaeological research at three coastal archaeological sites within the Tampa Bay Estuary, USA, sought to understand the interactions between shell-bearing sites, sea-level rise, storms, and migrating wetland habitats. Percussion core transects document the accretion of mangrove peat atop intact shell midden, illustrating the ability of mangrove forests to encroach shell midden and preserve cultural material below. Landward wetland deposits are thicker and muddier than those along the seaward margin of the sites, suggesting that shell-bearing sites attenuate wave energy much like other shoreline stabilization structures. Differences in sedimentology, stratigraphy, and invertebrate species compositions highlight the variability in storm impacts between sites. Storm-driven depositional events are identified by medium-to-fine sand beds with high densities of fragmented shell and small intertidal zone snails. Geospatial analyses indicate that wetland encroachment is already occurring at 247 archaeological sites within the Tampa Bay Estuary. Approximately 100 additional archaeological sites currently located in upland habitats may provide topographic relief for migrating coastal wetlands in the future. We contend that shell middens and mounds constructed by Indigenous peoples are important components within estuarine mosaics, as they have been for millennia. We advocate for further collaboration between archaeologists and estuary managers and the inclusion of descendant communities to co-manage the future of their past. 

   more » « less
4. People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023483118  

   Ellis, Erle C.; Gauthier, Nicolas; Klein Goldewijk, Kees; Bliege Bird, Rebecca; Boivin, Nicole; Díaz, Sandra; Fuller, Dorian Q.; Gill, Jacquelyn L.; Kaplan, Jed O.; Kingston, Naomi; et al (April 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   null (Ed.)

   Archaeological and paleoecological evidence shows that by 10,000 BCE, all human societies employed varying degrees of ecologically transformative land use practices, including burning, hunting, species propagation, domestication, cultivation, and others that have left long-term legacies across the terrestrial biosphere. Yet, a lingering paradigm among natural scientists, conservationists, and policymakers is that human transformation of terrestrial nature is mostly recent and inherently destructive. Here, we use the most up-to-date, spatially explicit global reconstruction of historical human populations and land use to show that this paradigm is likely wrong. Even 12,000 y ago, nearly three quarters of Earth’s land was inhabited and therefore shaped by human societies, including more than 95% of temperate and 90% of tropical woodlands. Lands now characterized as “natural,” “intact,” and “wild” generally exhibit long histories of use, as do protected areas and Indigenous lands, and current global patterns of vertebrate species richness and key biodiversity areas are more strongly associated with past patterns of land use than with present ones in regional landscapes now characterized as natural. The current biodiversity crisis can seldom be explained by the loss of uninhabited wildlands, resulting instead from the appropriation, colonization, and intensifying use of the biodiverse cultural landscapes long shaped and sustained by prior societies. Recognizing this deep cultural connection with biodiversity will therefore be essential to resolve the crisis. 

   more » « less
5. Mapping land use with integrated environmental archaeological datasets

   https://doi.org/10.1111/apaa.12185  

   Marston, John M; Vaiglova, Petra (July 2024, Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association)

   McLeester, Madeleine; Casana, Jesse (Ed.)

   Archaeologists have developed tools to reconstruct the locations of farming and animal herding using ecological and digital modeling of ancient landscapes. The determination of where on a landscape farming and herding took place, however, can remain elusive in environments with evidence for substantial geomorphological and/or ecological change since the period of occupation. Archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological evidence from the site of Gordion, in central Anatolia, indicates substantial landscape change over the last 4000 years, including deforestation, overgrazing, erosion, and alluviation. These have been inferred to be the result of past agricultural practices, but no firm evidence has pointed to specific locations (geographic and temporal) where ancient farming and herding may have caused these changes. Integrating extant archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and geoarchaeological evidence with new isotopic data provides a more detailed reconstruction of the sequence of agricultural practices that shaped the present landscape and ecology of the region, offering a model for future archaeological research within substantially transformed landscapes. 

   more » « less