© 2018 EQUINOX PUBLISHING LTD Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 5.1 (2018) 19–31 ISSN (print) 2051-3429 (online) 2051-3437 https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.33371 19 Ice and Concrete RESEARCH ARTICLE Ice and Concrete: Solid Fluids of Environmental Change n Cristián Simonetti Pontifcia Universidad Católica de Chile csimonetti@uc.cl n Tim Ingold University of Aberdeen, UK tim.ingold@abdn.ac.uk Abstract Recent environmental changes have sparked off unprecedented dialogues between practitioners of the earth sciences and the humanities – dialogues which defy some of the basic assumptions underpinning western science. However, a gap still persists between natural scientists and scholars in the humanities in their tendency to concentrate respec- tively on solid matter and fuid meaning. This article seeks to close this gap by paying attention to glacial ice and concrete, materials often taken to mark, respectively, the onset and culmination of human history. Historically, ice and concrete have been regarded as solid fuids. We argue, however, that both are caught in a punctuated understanding of change that turns fuidity and solidity into mutually exclusive properties, thus rendering the solid fuid as an oxymoron. The article concludes by comparing this “oxymoronic syndrome” with the ways in which the Inuit of West Greenland experience their cryogenic landscapes as nurturing environments in constant becoming. Introduction Recent environmental changes have sparked off unprecedented dialogues between practitioners of the earth sciences and of the humanities – dialogues which call into Keywords: Anthropocene, climate change, concrete, ice, solid fuids, stratifcation, time