Climate Festival 2026 - Sustainable Archaeologies in Times of Change
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
Archaeology studies the past as it is materialised and negotiated in the present. Archaeological sites, landscapes and objects form part of the worlds we live in today. Like us, they are shaped by global pressures, including the climate emergency. The warming planet is driving coastal erosion, flooding, wildfires and landslides that are all accelerating the loss of archaeological heritage. Yet these threats and losses do not exist in isolation. They intersect with other urgent concerns such as armed conflict, migration and displacement, social and economic inequality, infrastructural development and environmental contamination.
Practising sustainable archaeologies in the age of climate change means moving beyond simply preserving or documenting the past. It involves working with existing archives and collections as a more sustainable practice, while recognising that storage facilities and digital infrastructures themselves have large carbon footprints. They also support a shift from sustaining heritage to sustaining communities by emphasising local decision-making, knowledge co-production and capacity building. These shifts are becoming more critical as climate change unsettles archaeology’s relationship with time, uprooting long-held ideas about the permanence of archives, monuments and protected sites. Communities and practitioners increasingly confront questions of loss and face the challenge of what to preserve: what to let go and whose heritage to prioritise in times of change.
This exhibit encourages visitors to consider the relationship between understanding the past and being responsible to the present and future, through examples from the Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies.
Contact name: External Relations Events
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