Archaeology and the polycrisis: priorities for future-oriented practice

Archaeology is not a solitary discipline concerned only with digging up the past; rather, its wide potential for transdisciplinary collaboration and unique deep-time perspective provide traction for real-world current and future impact. Here, the author proposes integration of systems thinking, small-wins psychology and a more creative interdisciplinary approach as ways for archaeologists to address the existential ‘polycrisis’. Using food security as an example, this article argues that, as archaeologists, we should focus far more attention on the polycrisis than we do at present, that we can make a difference in addressing it and that we have a responsibility to try.