Implications of global climate change to local archaeology: why melting arctic sea ice matters to the practice of Southeastern archaeology

The archaeology of the Anthropocene is the ultimate anthropological study, encompassing our past, present, and future. Many of humankind’s past tipping points have occurred because of intense environmental changes, and yet the changes we are currently experiencing are more dramatic than any previously recorded. Human-caused changes to the climate are affecting the practice of archaeology in method and theory; therefore, it is imperative to understand the primary drivers of climate change on a global scale and the way those changes are expected to affect local site preservation and the everyday practice of archaeology. This paper outlines major global drivers of anthropogenic climate change to draw connections between global climate change and local effects to archaeological practice, site preservation, or communities. In effect, this paper is an attempt to contextualize why we should care about archaeology when we are facing such rapid and extensive changes to our lives as humans. Archaeology has traditionally occurred in a vacuum; it is imperative that archaeologists move away from an internalized workflow and instead incorporate literature from other fields and promote results outside of the field of anthropology to stay relevant.