Session: #467

Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

Disasters come in all sorts and shapes, with all kinds of agencies and implications. Catastrophic natural events are of course constitutive of the geological and climatic history of the earth, but they become hazards and risks, to be endured, mitigated or avoided, with the emergence of human civilisation – civilisation which itself generates or exacerbates its own array of mishaps. Recent event have shown that "natural" and "human-induced" disasters can be considered together – Haiti, Fukushima, Kathmandu, Marche, Mexico, as well as Chernobyl, Fukushima (again), Bamyan, Palmyra etc. Not all that is sudden or spectacular is also unexpected, let alone unavoidable: lack of anticipation, poor planning and short term considerations are rife. If flash-flooding and seismicity can benefit from avoidance measures, why not iconoclasm and vandalism? The demarcation between nature and culture, between engineering and politics, is never straightforward, including on matters of archaeology and cultural heritage. We seek here to encourage discussions, enriched by testimonies and case studies, around disaster-led archaeology.
Some questions:
- How can processes of preparation and prevention benefit from previous experiences?
- How can archaeological damage and heritage loss be included in processes of reconstruction?
- How – and why – to fight or delay the inevitable ruin and erosion of matter and of authenticity?
We look forwards to fruitful exchanges between colleagues with specific experiences from across the world (Far East, Mediterranean) also between more empirically grounded and more theoretical colleagues.

Disasters, nature, culture, responses, heritage.

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Dr Nathan Schlanger (France) ^1,2

Dr Katsuyuki Okamura (Japan) ³
Dr Laurent Nespoulous (France) ^4,2