Believe it or not, New York City has not been around forever. Though it has garnered a reputation as one of
world’s largest and most important metropolitan areas, compared to many other
major cities around the globe, New York is actually on the younger side. In fact, if one were to look back a mere four
hundred years, where we now see grids, asphalt and towering structures of stone
and steel, we would actually see a rather unfamiliar picture: a lush, sprawling
and diverse natural landscape.
Such was the finding of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Welikia Project. Originally dubbed the Manhatta Project, this research
initiative was an attempt by scientists to reveal the original 1609 ecology of
the city’s largest borough, and has since expanded to include all five boroughs
and parts of western Long Island (hence the name change). The results of the study are actually quite
striking, as evidenced by the interactive “Welikia Map,” essentially a Google
Maps rendering of 1609 NYC. A visitor to
the Welikia Project’s website will find that the map renders a wholly alien New
York, an ecologically rich landscape covered in streams, forests, marshes,
hills and other natural phenomena, a fascinating look at a city that we so often take
for granted.
 |
| Map of "Welikia" |
The Welikia Map even boasts an interactive feature that
allows the viewer to more closely examine the wildlife and landscape of
individual blocks, and then compare those features to its modern day
manifestation. From an archaeological
standpoint, however, the most intriguing aspect of this feature is the tab that
allows the viewer to explore the lifestyle and landscape of the Lenape people who
inhabited the area before Europeans arrived.
When I first visited the Welikia Project’s website, I was actually
worried that I would only find an ecological survey of 1609 New York, void of
any reference to the humans who lived as a part of that ecosystem for hundreds
of years. I was, however, pleasantly surprised, as the interactive Welikia Map
allows for exploration of the landscape habitat of the Lenape, as well as the
species of animals and plants they would have hunted and gathered. For example, in the area where Columbia
University currently stands, the landscape most likely did not allow for Lenape
encampments or trails, but the ecology did include many animals that the Lenape
hunted, including the Wild Turkey and White-tailed Deer, and plants that they
gathered, such as the Lowbush Blueberry and Lyreleaf Sage.
 |
| Morningside Heights, 1609 |
As an archaeologist, one aspect of the Welikia Map that is a
bit discomforting is the fact that the modern New York grid is mapped across
the original 1609 ecology, not to mention the modern borders of boroughs,
cities and states. Though the
interactive tabs do allow for a more direct experience of Welikia, I still feel
that the map does not allow for a truly experiential study of the landscape. How is one to truly understand the
pre-European landscape if one is consciously aware of the fact that the meadow
he or she is exploring is now on Fifth Avenue, or that the forested area he or
she is interested in is currently home to the Spanish Embassy? In addition, the stark change from diverse
natural landscape to modern day grid dangerously borders on the territory of
suggesting that European settlers mapped order onto an area in which none
previously existed.
 |
| Modern grid mapped onto 1609 ecology of Manhattan Island |
Now, to be fair, this is not necessarily the responsibility
of the Wildlife Conservation Society; their goals are almost purely ecological.
The study does, however, provide valuable
tools for archaeologists and other researchers who would seek to expand upon
this reconstruction of the 17th century New York City landscape. Some have already taken this opportunity,
including Marguerite Holloway, assistant professor at the Columbia University
School of Journalism, whose recently published book, Measuring Manhattan, centers on John Randel Jr., the man who, in
1808, set out to map the modern grid of Manhattan Island. Originally charged with writing a piece on
what was then the Manhatta Project, Holloway
became fascinated by Randel, whose data scientists depended upon in their
ecological reconstructions, and eventually turned that fascination into a full-length
biography.
 |
| John Randel Jr., from nytimes.com |
One final mission of the Welikia Project that could prove
fruitful for further archaeological study is to turn to the “modern
biodiversity” of the city, relating the landscapes and lifestyles of
contemporary New Yorkers to those of the area’s pre-European inhabitants.
Though these represent only a fragment of the possibilities
afforded to us through the Welikia Project, they show the ways in which the
Wildlife Conservation Society has opened the door to understanding the meaning
of landscape and place in relation to the original ecology of a major
metropolitan area; the effects of modern mapping on a diverse natural
landscape, as well as the effects of that landscape on the mapping process;
and, finally, a way of experiencing the cityscape as an unfamiliar space, as a
vibrant ecosystem filled with a myriad of foreign habitats, just waiting to be
explored.
Welikia Project website: http://welikia.org
Wildlife Conservation Society website: http://www.wcs.org
Article on Marguerite Holloway’s Randel biography: http://news.columbia.edu/grid
No comments:
Post a Comment