Past-Forwarding Ancient Calamities. Pathways for Making Archaeology Relevant in Disaster Risk Reduction Research

Despite the alleged mastery of humans over nature, contemporary societies are acutely vulnerable to natural hazards. In interaction with vulnerable communities, these transform into catastrophes. In a deep historical perspective, human communities of many different kinds have been affected by numero...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Felix Riede
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2017-10-01
Series:Humanities
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/6/4/79
_version_ 1818133556488044544
author Felix Riede
author_facet Felix Riede
author_sort Felix Riede
collection DOAJ
description Despite the alleged mastery of humans over nature, contemporary societies are acutely vulnerable to natural hazards. In interaction with vulnerable communities, these transform into catastrophes. In a deep historical perspective, human communities of many different kinds have been affected by numerous kinds of natural disasters that may provide useful data for scenario-based risk reduction measures vis-à-vis future calamities. The low frequency of high magnitude hazards necessitates a deep time perspective for understanding both the natural and human dimensions of such events in an evidence-based manner. This paper focusses on the eruption of the Laacher See volcano in western Germany about 13,000 years ago as an example of such a rare, but potentially highly devastating event. It merges Lee Clarke’s sociological argument for also thinking about such very rare events in disaster planning and David Staley’s notion of thinking historically about the future in order to ‘past-forward’ such information on past constellations of vulnerability and resilience. ‘Past-forwarding’ is here intended to signal the use of such deep historical information in concerns for contemporary and future resilience. This paper outlines two pathways for making archaeological information on past extreme environmental events relevant in disaster risk reduction: First, the combination of information from the geosciences and the humanities holds the potential to transform ancient hazards from matters of fact to matters of concern and, hence, to more effectively raise awareness of the issues concerned. Second, in addition to information on past calamities feeding into preparatory scenarios, I argue that the well-established outreach channels available to the humanities (museums, in particular) provide powerful platforms for communication to multiple publics.
first_indexed 2024-12-11T08:54:36Z
format Article
id doaj.art-56fb93dffefb4fc7b24cd5cb068a6530
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2076-0787
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-11T08:54:36Z
publishDate 2017-10-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Humanities
spelling doaj.art-56fb93dffefb4fc7b24cd5cb068a65302022-12-22T01:13:55ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872017-10-01647910.3390/h6040079h6040079Past-Forwarding Ancient Calamities. Pathways for Making Archaeology Relevant in Disaster Risk Reduction ResearchFelix Riede0Centre for Environmental Humanities, Laboratory for Past Disaster Science, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, 8270 Højbjerg, DenmarkDespite the alleged mastery of humans over nature, contemporary societies are acutely vulnerable to natural hazards. In interaction with vulnerable communities, these transform into catastrophes. In a deep historical perspective, human communities of many different kinds have been affected by numerous kinds of natural disasters that may provide useful data for scenario-based risk reduction measures vis-à-vis future calamities. The low frequency of high magnitude hazards necessitates a deep time perspective for understanding both the natural and human dimensions of such events in an evidence-based manner. This paper focusses on the eruption of the Laacher See volcano in western Germany about 13,000 years ago as an example of such a rare, but potentially highly devastating event. It merges Lee Clarke’s sociological argument for also thinking about such very rare events in disaster planning and David Staley’s notion of thinking historically about the future in order to ‘past-forward’ such information on past constellations of vulnerability and resilience. ‘Past-forwarding’ is here intended to signal the use of such deep historical information in concerns for contemporary and future resilience. This paper outlines two pathways for making archaeological information on past extreme environmental events relevant in disaster risk reduction: First, the combination of information from the geosciences and the humanities holds the potential to transform ancient hazards from matters of fact to matters of concern and, hence, to more effectively raise awareness of the issues concerned. Second, in addition to information on past calamities feeding into preparatory scenarios, I argue that the well-established outreach channels available to the humanities (museums, in particular) provide powerful platforms for communication to multiple publics.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/6/4/79possibilistic thinkinghistorical thinkingnatural hazardsrisk reductionvulnerabilityscenariosvolcanismLaacher See
spellingShingle Felix Riede
Past-Forwarding Ancient Calamities. Pathways for Making Archaeology Relevant in Disaster Risk Reduction Research
Humanities
possibilistic thinking
historical thinking
natural hazards
risk reduction
vulnerability
scenarios
volcanism
Laacher See
title Past-Forwarding Ancient Calamities. Pathways for Making Archaeology Relevant in Disaster Risk Reduction Research
title_full Past-Forwarding Ancient Calamities. Pathways for Making Archaeology Relevant in Disaster Risk Reduction Research
title_fullStr Past-Forwarding Ancient Calamities. Pathways for Making Archaeology Relevant in Disaster Risk Reduction Research
title_full_unstemmed Past-Forwarding Ancient Calamities. Pathways for Making Archaeology Relevant in Disaster Risk Reduction Research
title_short Past-Forwarding Ancient Calamities. Pathways for Making Archaeology Relevant in Disaster Risk Reduction Research
title_sort past forwarding ancient calamities pathways for making archaeology relevant in disaster risk reduction research
topic possibilistic thinking
historical thinking
natural hazards
risk reduction
vulnerability
scenarios
volcanism
Laacher See
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/6/4/79
work_keys_str_mv AT felixriede pastforwardingancientcalamitiespathwaysformakingarchaeologyrelevantindisasterriskreductionresearch