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by Rosemary Joyce (Author)
How can nations ensure that buried nuclear waste goes undisturbed for thousands of years? The United States government tried to solve this problem with the help of experts they identified in communication, materials science, and futurism. From the perspective of a contemporary archaeologist, The Future of Nuclear Waste looks at what these experts suggested, and what the government endorsed: designs for a modern monument, an artificial ruin, a purpose-built archaeological site that would escape future exploration. One design, selected for development, argued that because specific archaeological sites and objects (among them Stonehenge, Serpent Mound, the Rosetta Stone, and rock art) made long ago have endured and are seen as significant today, contemporary engineers could build monuments that would be equally effective in conveying messages that last even longer. An alternative proposal, which government planners set aside, was rooted in the idea that universal archetypes of
design arouse similar human emotions in all times and places. Both proposals used common sense, assuming that human reactions and understandings are relatively predictable.
Author Biography
Rosemary Joyce is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her previous publications include Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives: Sex, Gender, and Archaeology and, as editor with Barry Cunliffe and Chris Gosden, The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology.
