Doing archaeology from the Integrated Coastal Management perspective. Challenges for the conservation of the coastal archaeological heritage of Juan Lacaze and its microregion, Uruguay

Abstract

The coasts of Colonia province in Uruguay provide with a continuum of human occupation since, at least, mid Holocene. The Municipality of Juan Lacaze and its region does not escape this complex network of interrelationships that the different human groups established with these coasts over thousands of years. In this zone, archaeological material from the indigenous groups is recorded along the dunes and in the intertidal zone. In these highly dynamic environments affected by natural and human threats, the progress of archaeological research depends on a fundamental fact: the conservation of the archaeological record. We consider then that the sustainable management of the coastal archaeological heritage of the Municipality of Juan Lacaze must be carried on under the view of the ICZM and the integrated risk assessment and management, as they are two theoretical-methodological approaches that may well complement each other in the search for solutions to the risks faced by this heritage. The methodological approach included: the bowtie method, which allowed the identification of causes and consequences of risk events, the identification and systematization of the probabilities of occurrence of threats and the severity of their consequences and a dual entry table to classify risk levels. The results reveal a situation that is not new: the coastal archaeological heritage that was at risk for more than 20 years, continues in the same situation due to the effects of sand mining, urban development, erosion, climate change and variability, abandonment, ignorance, lack of inter-institutional coordination and legal protection, and the absence of heritage public policies. For Uruguay, risk assessment is an innovative methodology with regard to archaeological heritage. This work made it possible to determine its suitability for the identification, estimation and evaluation of risk. In addition to allowing an integrated vision of possible damages and losses, risk assessment is useful to establish priorities as well as management strategies to reduce risks for cultural heritage under threat.