Preserving Arctic Archaeology in the 21st Century: Threats of Climate Change

Archaeological Sites;Climate Change;Heritage Management;Preservation;Arctic;Public Issues Anthropology

Goetz, Pauline

University of Waterloo

关键词: Archaeological Sites;    Climate Change;    Heritage Management;    Preservation;    Arctic;    Public Issues Anthropology;   

Others  :  https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/5660/1/Goetz_Pauline.pdf

瑞士|英语

来源: UWSPACE Waterloo Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

Archaeological sites around the world are facing many challenges. These challenges include urbanexpansion, resource exploitation, tourism, governmental infrastructure programs such as roaddevelopment and one of the most recently recognized challenges is climate change. Thearchaeological record of the Arctic tundra is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in the climate, withits fragile ecosystems and ground underlain by permafrost. The impact of increasing globaltemperatures is a major public issue of the 21st Century, and the ramifications on archaeological sitesare significant. The impacts felt over the next century are predicted to range from a sea level rise ofalmost a metre to a 6.4°C rise in temperature (IPCC, 2007:13). Arctic archaeological sites ofteninvoke a feeling of being in stasis, simply waiting for the next researcher to come along and discoverthem anew. In fact, the continued existence of these sites is taken for granted, and many are in factunder siege from environmental factors. While the Arctic may face some of the greatestenvironmental challenges to its archaeological record, it also has some of the greatest potential of insitu preservation in the world. The slow growth of infrastructure in many parts of the Arctic alongwith a very low population density has meant that threats from development are not as significant orpressing as in other locales both in Canada and throughout the world. This means that the potential topreserve the archaeological record for future generations and future technologies is substantial if thesurrounding environment can be stabilized. This paper summarizes the effects of a warming climateupon archaeological sites and uses the Arctic as a focal point, as it is the northern regions that arecurrently recognized as the most environmentally vulnerable. The Sannirut site on Bylot Island,Nunavut presents an excellent case study on the importance of preservation policies as well as thepracticalities on how it can be done with current technologies.