Archaeology’s Deep Time Perspective on Environment and Sustainability with Allen Dart

The deep time perspective that archaeology, geology, and related disciplines provide about natural hazards, environmental change, and societal development is often ignored when societies today make decisions affecting social sustainability and human safety. Studies of ancient peoples and natural events can help modern society deal with problems of environmental and social change, overpopulation, and sustainability. This presentation looks at the long-term effects of exposure to natural chemical hazards, ancient and modern agricultural techniques, and biological and geological records of past climate and natural disasters, to show the value of research in subject areas that are “beyond history.”

This program is cohosted by Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce – McFarland State Historic Park.

About the speaker:

Native Americans in the US Southwest developed sophisticated skills in astronomy and predicting the seasons, centuries before non-Indigenous peoples entered the region. In this presentation, archaeologist Allen Dart discusses archaeological and ethnographic evidence of ancient astronomical and calendrical reckoning practices seen in petroglyphs, architecture, and settlement layouts in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, and interprets how these discoveries may relate to ancient Native American rituals.