“Archaeology’s Deep Time Perspective on Environment and Social Sustainability”

This free presentation will be given by Allen Dart on Wednesday, August 10, 2016, 7-8 pm,  for Arizona Archaeological Society Homolovi Chapter at Winslow Chamber of Commerce, 523 W. Second St., Winslow, Arizona; cosponsored by Arizona Humanities* The deep time perspective that archaeology and related disciplines provide about natural hazards, environmental change, and human adaptation not only is a valuable supplement to historical records, it sometimes contradicts historical data used by modern societies to make decisions affecting social sustainability and human safety. What can be learned from scientific evidence that virtually all prehistoric farming cultures in Arizona and the Southwest eventually surpassed their thresholds of sustainability, leading to collapse or reorganization of their societies? Could the disastrous damages to nuclear power plants damaged by the Japanese tsunami of 2011 have been avoided if the engineers who decided where to build those plants had not ignored evidence of prehistoric tsunamis? This presentation looks at archaeological, geological, and sustainable-agricultural evidence on environmental changes and how human cultures have adapted to those changes, and discusses the value of a “beyond history” perspective for modern society. The program is made possible by Arizona Humanities.

* This is not an Old Pueblo Archaeology Center event. For more information about the event contact Sky Roshay at 928-536-3307 or skyness54@gmail.com; for information about the presentation contact Allen Dart at 520-798-1201 or adart@oldpueblo.org.