/ Opinion Experts on the past, working in the present: what archeologists can contribute to current water management Emily Holt * By definition, archeologists study the past—often the ancient past—and their work may not seem relevant to present-day problems in water management. However, the knowledge of both past practices and current conditions that archeologists gain through conducting research can have useful contemporary applications. The archeological conference Water and Power in Past Societies, held at the University at Buffalo in April 2015, highlighted these potential contri- butions in a panel discussion on ‘what archaeology can contribute to contempo- rary water politics.’ The main theme to emerge from the discussion was that archeologists’ varied experiences make them well suited to inform and facilitate dialogue among conflicting perspectives. This opinion piece summarizes and builds on the themes of the panel discussion to outline ways in which archeolo- gists may contribute to solving current water issues. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. How to cite this article: WIREs Water 2017, e1215. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1215 INTRODUCTION O n April 12, 2015, the 8th Visiting Scholar Con- ference of the Institute for European and Medi- terranean Archaeology, Water and Power in Past Societies, closed with a panel discussion addressing ‘what archaeology can contribute to contemporary water politics.’ a This discussion sought to explore the role archeologists, as uniquely positioned social scientists, can and should have in affecting water management. Unlike cultural anthropologists and other social scientists who often position themselves as speaking to policymakers, 1–8 archeologists are sel- dom viewed as an essential source of knowledge about contemporary water issues. Accordingly, few archeologists self-identify as interdisciplinary experts on water or seek roles as public scholars whose voices should be heard. Archeologists often avoid the challenges of scholarship in the public eye, although there are notable exceptions 9–12 and this general ten- dency is up for debate (Box 1). 13 Archeologists are not the only professionals who often fail to break out of the ‘water box’ prob- lem 14 identified in UNESCO’s World Water Develop- ment Report 3. 15 The ‘water box’ represents the disconnect between water knowledge and the crea- tion of policies that govern water supply and use. While social scientists do produce models of water- related climate futures, 16 they often find it difficult to assert their models in discussions of climate change, leaving the discourse of future climate to be shaped primarily by natural scientists. 17 This is particularly problematic with regard to water management, because at the scale of individual water use, locally specific social and cultural structures often trump understandings of water management that are drawn from the natural sciences. 18,19 The primary theme that emerged from the IEMA conference panel discussion was that archeolo- gists do have knowledge and experiences that *Correspondence to: emilyhol@buffalo.edu Department of Anthropology, University at Buffalo, State Univer- sity of Buffalo, New York, USA Conflict of interest: The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1 of 9