Arctic and Subarctic Coasts: Current Research and Modern Challenges

The coasts of the Arctic and Subarctic are dynamic ecosystems, posing challenges to the people who have occupied them, live there today, and the archaeologists who conduct research there. Throughout much of the Holocene they were occupied by diverse peoples who had complex relationships with their environment, as do the people who live in these regions today. This session examines current research focusing on those relationships, from processes of colonization and adaptation to the mitigation of modern impacts on heritage resources resulting from a changing global climate. Archaeologists who focus on the Circumpolar North incorporate a wide array of theoretical and methodological approaches; however, all of them realize the broader importance of the study of northern peoples and the ecosystems of which they are a part. The papers presented in this session are a sampling of the innovative and challenging projects that focus on northern coasts. They represent the current state of Arctic and Subarctic archaeological coastal research and examine its future.