1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Plastics
The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Plastics investigates the archaeology of the contemporary world through the lens of its most distinguishing and problematic material.
Plastics are ubiquitous and have been so for nearly three generations since they became widely used in the early 1950s. Plastics will persist for millennia, their legacies as toxic heritage being felt deep into the future. In this book – comprising 32 original, at times disturbing, and critically engaged contributions – scholars from archaeology and other cognate disciplines explore plastics from a number of different angles and perspectives. Together these contributions highlight the dilemma that plastics present: their usefulness on the one hand, and the threats they present to environmental health on the other. The volume also explores the lessons that archaeologists can learn from plastics, about episodes of mass production, consumption and toxicity in the past, and also – importantly – about the future.
This important and timely collection will therefore be of interest to all archaeologists irrespective of their period of study, or their geographical focus, and to students of archaeology and cultural heritage. It will also be relevant for researchers and students in other fields of study that focus on plastics and their environmental and social impacts. Ultimately, this book concerns the contemporary world and the impact of people upon it, through the archaeological lens.
Chapter 1 Archaeology and plastics: an introduction (Geneviève Godin, Þóra Pétursdóttir, Estelle Praet, and John Schofield)
Section 1 Introduction: Frameworks
Chapter 2 Early Plastics (Cassie Newland)
Chapter 3 Stratigraphy of Plastics (Matt Edgeworth)
Chapter 4 Plastics in Sedimentary Processes and Rocks: The Fossilization of the Plastic Age (Nelson Rangel-Buitrago, William Neal, and Kathleen Nicoll)
Chapter 5 Plastic and Presentism: The Time of Disposability (Gay Hawkins)
Chapter 6 Curating Plastics (Rupert Cole, Isabelle Marina Held, Susan Lambert, and Helen Peavitt)
Chapter 7 Classification for the Plastic Age (Anna S. Agbe-Davies and J. Eric Deetz)
Section 2 Introduction: Perspectives
Chapter 8 In Small Plastic Things Forgotten: The Contradictions and Consequences of Biopower (Pamela Geller)
Chapter 9 Unsustainable Horizons: Plastic material Culture in Forensic Archaeology (Anna Chaussée and Karl Harrison)
Chapter 10 Ephemeral Archaeology? Queering the Cultural and Political Implications of Historicising Plastic Pollution (Vanbasten de Araújo and Nicole Seymour)
Chapter 11 A ‘Plastic Archaeology for an Anthropocene of Plastics: Reflections from the South (Ezequiel Gilardenghi)
Chapter 12 ‘Self-insulated, … Rotproof and Fireproof’? The Poetry of Plastics in Architecture: From the House of the Future to the Grenfell Tower Disaster (Alexander Davidson)
Chapter 13 Understanding the Use of Plastics in Design: Materials, Manufacturing Processes, and Relational Connections (Louise Dennis)
Chapter 14 Contemporary Art, Archaeology, and Plastics (Antonia Thomas)
Section 3 Introduction: Production
Chapter 15 The Archaeology of Oil Production (William Caraher)
Chapter 16 Additives And Afterlives: Plastic Production and Consumption in Ruby Arizona (Haeden Stewart)
Chapter 17 The Industrial Archaeology of Plastic Production (Michael Nevell)
Chapter 18 Plastics and the Great Depression in North East England: 1929-1939 (David Petts)
Chapter 19 Pulsing Threads, Plastic Lines (Christine Finn)
Section 4 Introduction: Use
Chapter 20 From Transformative Potential to Existential Crisis: The Practice of Art/Archaeology in the Plastic Age (Emma Bryning)
Chapter 21 Remembering the Building Blocks of Socialism: The Material and Mediatised (N)ostalgia of East German Plastic Construction Toys (Samuel Merrill)
Chapter 22 Vinyl Records in Archaeological Context: A Case Study from Northern California (Liam Maloney and Breck Parkman)
Chapter 23 Ritual Litter: Pagan Votive Offerings at Historic and Nature Sites in the UK (Debora Moretti and Sheriden Toso)
Chapter 24 Birds as Curators of Human Generated Debris (Dominique Potvin and Kathy Townsend)
Section 5 Introduction: Waste
Chapter 25 Living on the Mounds of Plastic: The Material Culture and Daily Life of Communities with Garbage-Based Subsistence (Leila Papoli-Yazdi)
Chapter 26 An Underwater Archaeology of Plastic in Inland Waterways (Estelle Praet and Christophe Delaere)
Chapter 27 Islands of the Plastic Age: Cultural Heritage Perspectives on Submergence and Emergence in the Northern Pacific
(Raveena Tamoria and John Schofield)
Chapter 28 Archaeology of a Cargo Spill: The Lingering Legacy of Lego (Tracey Williams and Andrew Turner)
Chapter 29 Plastics in Outer Space (Alice Gorman)
Chapter 30 The Flipflopi: The recycled plastic boat on a mission to ‘close the loop’ on plastic waste (Carinè Müller, Victor Béguerie, and Rebecca Faber)
Section 6 Future Prospects
Chapter 31 The Substance of Dreams: Plastics and ‘The Future’ (Paul Graves-Brown)
Chapter 32 Conclusion by Cornelius Holtorf
Index
Biography
Geneviève Godin is a contemporary archaeologist whose interests include queer theory, ecology, and non-human agency.
Þóra Pétursdóttir is Professor of archaeology at the University of Oslo, Norway.
Estelle Praet is an archaeologist who has participated in excavations and surveys in Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and Europe.
John Schofield teaches cultural heritage management and contemporary archaeology in the Archaeology Department, University of York (UK).
