Climate and Heritage in the Arctic: Environmental Monitoring and a New European Standard

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Climate and Heritage in the North Atlantic: Burning Libraries" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

To respond to climate change impacts as well as other societal and environmental impacts to archaeological preservation, Norway has been applying environmental monitoring of archaeological deposits and sites since the 1990s. To standardize monitoring methods, tools, and evaluations, a Norwegian Standard was implemented in 2009. Now, a new European Standard is taking its place, enabling international intrasite comparisons, as well as giving tools to enable intrasite prioritization through more complete combined threat evaluations. The CULTCOAST research project in Arctic and sub-Arctic Norway has established environmental monitoring points, gathering data since 2020 (Svalbard) and 2021 (Andøya). Through research cooperation with both Norwegian and European research projects, the CULTCOAST researchers have also involved local communities, heritage management agencies, and international actors such as cruise ship operators in heritage monitoring and work on adaptation measures. This paper will introduce the new European Standard on archaeological environmental monitoring, and present results from monitoring, community involvement, and co-creation of knowledge in the CULTCOAST research project, using site data from Svalbard and Andøya in Norway.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Climate and Heritage in the North Atlantic: Burning Libraries   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36532.0