Upcoming Events

Kimberly Wooten, RPA, California Department of Transportation

Kimberly Wooten received her BA in anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1990. She has been a working archaeologist since then, shifting her focus from pre-contact to the fields of post-contact and contemporary archaeology. The potential to explore plastic as an archaeological issue came to her attention in 2018, when she had the opportunity to sail with an all-women crew to research microplastics in the North Atlantic. Kimberly writes and presents on plastic waste, microplastics, and how climate change and other environmental issues can be addressed by the discipline of archaeology. Most recently, she has been teaching about historic-era plastics in the archaeological record, tying those workshops to contemporary archaeology and activism. Ms. Wooten is a recognized expert in the growing field of plastic archaeology. She currently works for the California Department of Transportation as an archaeologist and a climate change specialist.

Julia Huddleson, California Department of Transportation

Julia Huddleson is an historical archaeologist with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) where she is the statewide manager of a GIS application and integrated database that tracks cultural resources and projects across California. She has a BA in anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz (1991), MS in education from University of Southern California (1991) and an MA in Cultural Resources Management from Sonoma State University (2003). She developed a love of historical archaeology from the post-contact period early in her career and, and since 1997, for Caltrans. Key accomplishments at Caltrans include publication of archaeological research designs for agriculture, mining, townsites, and work camp properties developed with an interdisciplinary team. While working for the Forest Service and Caltrans, she had the opportunity to develop training programs to teach identification of ceramics and other material types from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Most recently, she collaborated with Ms. Wooten to develop a training for identifying plastic types found in the archaeological record.

Many of us think of plastic as a modern phenomenon. However, the first synthetic plastics were in production by the early 1870s. Plastic artifacts present at archaeological sites are often mistaken as modern disturbance and not recognized for what they can contribute to a site’s history. A basic understanding of this material type will be increasingly important for recording and evaluating archaeological sites. This seminar will give an overview of the history and development of plastics, followed by an introduction to specific plastic types, including celluloid, Bakelite, and acrylic. Teaching will rely on detailed images of plastic artifacts and type collection examples from the early 1900s through to the modern era, including a discussion of basic identification methods. While the focus is on domestic sites,
information provided will inform on industrial commercial and archaeological sites as well. The seminar will conclude with a discussion of the Anthropocene, contemporary plastic archaeology, and time focused on individual solutions to the current plastic pollution crisis. There will be time for Q&A at the end of the session.

1) Introduce participants to the history of synthetic plastic production, beginning in the 1870s.
2) Provide methods to identify celluloid, Bakelite, and acrylic artifacts.
3) Introduce contemporary archaeological issues associated with plastic.
4) Provide a brief discussion of measures participants can take to reduce their plastic consumption.