This is an online event.
Sponsored by: Archaeological Institute of America
Earth’s ecosystems are rapidly changing, driven largely by human activities such as the overexploitation of wildlife, habitat degradation, and anthropogenic climate change. The human footprint is so substantial that many scientists argue that we now live in the Anthropocene, a new geologic epoch of our own making. To help understand the modern world and confront our environmental challenges, researchers need new theoretical, methodological, and interdisciplinary approaches in the sciences. Archaeology and historical ecology are rapidly becoming key disciplinary players by providing deep historical information on the relative abundances of flora and fauna, changes in biogeography, alterations in food webs, and much more. Recent research on California’s Channel Islands, in particular, offers new perspectives on human-environmental ecodynamics in marine and terrestrial ecosystems and demonstrates that perspectives from deep history will be key in helping us better understand the modern world and confront the challenges of the Anthropocene. Today, more than ever, the past will be key in helping us build a more sustainable future.
Roberts Lecture
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The AIA is North America's largest and oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to archaeology. The Institute advances awareness, education, fieldwork, preservation, publication, and research of archaeological sites and cultural heritage throughout the world. Your contribution makes a difference.
