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Tap water enables the development of cities in locations with insufficient natural resources to support such populations. For the last 200 years, New York City has obtained water through a network of nineteen reservoirs and controlled lakes, some as far as 125-miles away. Engineering this water system required the demolition of rural communities, removal of cemeteries, and rerouting of roadways and waterways. The ruination is ongoing. This archaeological examination of the New York City watershed reveals the cultural costs of urban water systems. Urban water systems do more than reroute water from one place to another. At best, they redefine communities. At worst, they erase them.
“Beisaw takes the reader along with herself and her students as they walked over, through, and around the watershed communities of New York whose lands and livelihoods continue to be impacted by New York City’s ever-increasing need for water. The careful and example-filled work provides the best sorts of nuance about the ways that text, artifact, and oral history can be harnessed by archaeological practice to show the real stakes of our collective use of water, and how that world-sanctioned human right will be even further at risk as the oceans rise and our climate continues to change.” • Rebecca S. Graff, Lake Forest College
Introduction
Urban Water as an (Un)natural Resource
Archaeology’s Unique Perspective
Book Outline
Chapter 1. Archaeology and the Contemporary Past
Past, Present, Future
Archaeological Method and Theory
Connections and Conclusions
Chapter 2. New York City’s Water System
Starting on Manhattan Island
Reaching Off-Island
Acquiring More Distant Lands
Connections and Conclusions
Chapter 3. Kent: A Town Repurposed
Introduction
History
Archaeology of City-Owned Lands
Connections and Conclusions
Chapter 4. Olive: A Town Traumatized
Introduction
History
Archaeology of City-Owned Lands
Connections and Conclusions
Chapter 5. Water Pasts for Water Futures
An Archaeology of Watershed Communities
Archaeologists as Effective Activists?
Conclusion
Bibliography