Climate Change, Capacity-Building and Local Engagement: Report on the 2018 Arctic Viking Field School, Vatnahverfi, South Greenland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Accelerating Environmental Change Threats to Cultural Heritage: Serious Challenges, Promising Responses" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Eastern Arctic is currently observed to be undergoing significant environmental change as a direct consequence of global warming. For archaeologists working in Greenland, this means the rapid and complete loss of cultural remains due to changing soil conditions. As annual temperatures increase, many middens in Greenland are in an active state of ‘composting’ their once well-preserved artifacts and ecofacts. The Norse Eastern Settlement in Southwest Greenland (>500 sites) possess a substantial number of prehistoric and colonial era archaeological sites and is now over the critical threshold—with hundreds of these sites now rapidly degrading. Greenland faces an urgent threat because these unique scientific and cultural resources may soon be lost forever. This paper discusses the recent initiatives by the Greenland National Museum to combine a robust international field school training program combined with public engagement to addresses the loss of archaeological resources in Southwest Greenland, where climate change is observed to be having immediate impacts on heritage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Accelerating Environmental Change Threats to Cultural Heritage: Serious Challenges, Promising Responses   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25494