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; Section 1: Introduction: Frameworks: Chapter 2 Early Plastics; Chapter 3 Stratigraphy of Plastics; Chapter 4 Plastics in Sedimentary Processes and Rocks: The Fossilization of the Plastic Age; Chapter 5 Plastic and Presentism: The Time of Disposability; Chapter 6 Curating Plastics; Chapter 7 Classification for the Plastic Age; Section 2 Introduction: Perspectives: Chapter 8 In Small Plastic Things Forgotten: The Contradictions and Consequences of Biopower; Chapter 9 Unsustainable Horizons: Plastic material Culture in Forensic Archaeology; Chapter 10 Ephemeral Archaeology? Queering the Cultural and Political Implications of Historicising Plastic Pollution; Chapter 11 A ‘Plastic Archaeology for an Anthropocene of Plastics: Reflections from the South; Chapter 12 ‘Self-insulated, … Rotproof and Fireproof’? The Poetry of Plastics in Architecture: From the House of the Future to the Grenfell Tower Disaster; Chapter 13 Understanding the Use of Plastics in Design: Materials, Manufacturing Processes, and Relational Connections; Chapter 14 Contemporary Art, Archaeology, and Plastics; Section 3 Introduction: Production: Chapter 15 The Archaeology of Oil Production; Chapter 16 Additives And Afterlives: Plastic Production and Consumption in Ruby Arizona; Chapter 17 The Industrial Archaeology of Plastic Production; Chapter 18 Plastics and the Great Depression in North East England: 1929-1939; Chapter 19 Pulsing Threads, Plastic Lines; Section 4 Introduction: Use: Chapter 20 From Transformative Potential to Existential Crisis: The Practice of Art/Archaeology in the Plastic Age; Chapter 21 Remembering the Building Blocks of Socialism: The Material and Mediatised (N)ostalgia of East German Plastic Construction Toys; Chapter 22 Vinyl Records in Archaeological Context: A Case Study from Northern California; Chapter 23 Ritual Litter: Pagan Votive Offerings at Historic and Nature Sites in the UK; Chapter 24 Birds as Curators of Human Generated Debris; Section 5 Introduction: Waste: Chapter 25 Living on the Mounds of Plastic: The Material Culture and Daily Life of Communities with Garbage-Based Subsistence; Chapter 26 An Underwater Archaeology of Plastic in Inland Waterways; Chapter 27 Islands of the Plastic Age: Cultural Heritage Perspectives on Submergence and Emergence in the Northern Pacific; Chapter 28 Archaeology of a Cargo Spill: The Lingering Legacy of Lego; Chapter 29 Plastics in Outer Space; Chapter 30 The Flipflopi: The recycled plastic boat on a mission to ‘close the loop’ on plastic waste; Section 6 Future Prospects: Chapter 31 The Substance of Dreams: Plastics and ‘The Future’; Chapter 32 Conclusion by Cornelius Holtorf; Index.
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