COMMUNITY EVENTS
Free or low cost Community Events and college courses are intended to provide background on the yearly topic and to touch on areas related to the February Conference that may not be covered in its three-day format. The views of our presenters are their own and may not represent those of the Camden Conference.
- This event has passed.
“Melting Away: Disappearing Archeology in the Arctic”-a talk by Genevieve LeMoine via Zoom
January 26, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm EST
The Camden Conference in partnership with the Falmouth Memorial Library and Merrill Memorial Library will present Genevieve Lemoine, “Melting Away: Disappearing Archeology in the Arctic” in a live Zoom presentation on Tuesday, January 26 at 7pm on Zoom. This event is free and open to all. To register to receive the link for this meeting, contact Jeannie at jmadden@falmouthmemoriallibrary.org.
Northern communities are facing many problems associated with rapid and dramatic warming in the Arctic, among them devastating losses to their cultural heritage. Humans have occupied Arctic coastlines for thousands of years. In many places the remains of their dwellings, camps, and villages are exquisitely preserved. Even fragile organic materials have been protected from decay in the frozen ground. Now, such sites are increasingly at risk as warmer summers and less cold winters cause permafrost to retreat and long-preserved wood, fur, and feathers to decay. In some areas, whole sites are endangered as dramatic coastal erosion linked to both melting permafrost and diminished sea ice washes them away.
This talk will look at the damage climate change is doing to prehistoric and historic archaeological site across the Arctic, and the ways archaeologists and northern communities are coping with this emerging problem. Starting with her own work at Etah, Greenland, LeMoine will illustrate the various ways sites are being destroyed, and the efforts to save them.
Genevieve LeMoine has been doing archaeological fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland for over 30 years. Her research has taken her from the Mackenzie Delta all the way to northern Ellesmere Island and Northwestern Greenland. She is curator of The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center, Bowdoin College.
Her presentation is sponsored by the 2021 Camden Conference, which this year will be exploring the Arctic, one of the world’s least-known regions.
Photograph by Lara Bluhm, Courtesy of the Inglefield Land Archaeology Project.
