One by one, archaeologists came across pieces of garbage. Using techniques usually reserved for documenting stone tools and bones, the team recorded items such as plastic spoons, glasses, bottle caps, straws, mobile phone batteries, paint caps, candy packaging and plastic wrap. By the end of the experiment, archaeologists had discovered nearly 3,000 objects, the vast majority of which were made of plastic.
That plastic found on the spot, a former fort on the hill in Wales, was not a surprise. In fact, it was to be expected, but not to this extent.
Since the 1980s, there have been two Iron Age round houses on this site, which matched those once located at the Iron Age Castell Henllys fort at the end of the first millennium BC.
Most of the visitors who came to the site were children on excursions, whose legacy is only now understood. Like the new Antiquity paper shows, plastics have a habit of sticking together – including in heritage sites that existed long before the invention of these synthetic materials. It is another sign that we have entered the anthropocene, a period in which we are rebuilding the planet according to our image.
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The replica of the round houses at Castell Henllys had two different purposes. The first, called the Cookhouse, was set up as a real Iron Age roundabout, while the second, called the Earthwatch, was set up as a classroom, where students sat on benches to learn and eat their snacks.
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, which manages the site, recently decided to dismantle the proper roundabouts to health and safety issues. However, before building new structures, archaeologists considered it wise to excavate the site. It would serve as a good opportunity to study the decomposition processes, to determine which human activities lead to waste and how replicated structures could affect the integrity of prehistoric structures located in the same place. Here, the two round fireplaces were built literally on the same site as the real ones, which existed well over 2,000 years ago. As the authors wrote in their study, “we anticipated that the artifact sets and distributions at Castell Henllys could act as valuable tests for correlating accidental throwing with activity patterns.”
This proved to be the case, but the amount of waste seen on site exceeded it. expectations.
“We often find a small amount of recent remains when we start an excavation or find an intentional pit, but never so in a heritage site or occupation building,” said Harold Mytum, an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool and the first author in the new paper, explained in an e-mail.
This does not mean that the patrimony has been mismanaged. The round cottages have been cleaned regularly to maintain the appearance of a prehistoric Iron Age setting. But, as the new research shows, a surprising amount of garbage managed to seep into the ground, leading to the discovery of so many objects. Needless to say, the vast majority of the recovered items were found in Earthwatch, where the students ate their snacks. Most of the objects were small and fragmentary in nature, such as broken packages, which explains why not all the garbage was collected.
“Children’s packages [lunch packs] they can damage the planet – they contain a lot of plastic, and objects are lost and lost, ”said Mytum. “Candy packaging is also plasticized and poses another threat to the environment.”
Needless to say, the discovery of all these plastics, although certainly part of the experiment, forced archaeologists to change their approach. The scientists had recorded all the findings, but they had to adjust their resources “to prove justice,” Mytum said. That being said, it has not affected the ability of archaeologists to examine how buildings have collapsed over the decades. and to the document the distinct signatures left by our modern civilization.
“Indeed, it revealed how the artifacts are embedded in the floor and also where they were densest inside the houses,” Mytum explained. “Prehistoric houses have fewer discoveries, but we can think about how the activities leave their mark in archeology.”
Next, Mytum and colleagues will continue to work with Pembrokeshire Coast National Park to educate the public on these issues. and to find more effective ways to keep these important spaces clean.
But it will not be easy.
“Even well-managed rural locations can have a significant build-up of plastics in the soil,” Mytum said. “The plastic age – an indicator of the Anthropocene – really came not only in the oceans of the Blue Planet, but also in its soils. Reducing the use of plastics is essential – these scraps were a by-product of our lifestyle even in a place where any obviously modern materials, such as plastic rubbish, are disposed of to avoid affecting the experience of heritage visitors. “
To which he added: “If it’s so bad here, it’s a sign that we need to rethink our lifestyle.”