Arctic archaeological sites threatened by climate change: A regional multi‐threat assessment of sites in south‐west Greenland

Climate change threatens many well‐preserved archaeological sites in the Arctic. The paper presents the first Arctic multi‐threat assessment focusing on the Nuuk region of Greenland. The results suggest that the majority of the 336 known archaeological sites are already exposed to impacts from micro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archaeometry 2020-12, Vol.62 (6), p.1280-1297
Main Authors: Fenger‐Nielsen, R., Elberling, B., Kroon, A., Westergaard‐Nielsen, A., Matthiesen, H., Harmsen, H., Madsen, C. K., Stendel, M., Hollesen, J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeological sites
Archaeology
Arctic
Climate change
Coastal erosion
Greenland
Historic buildings & sites
Microbial degradation
Permafrost
Polar environments
remote sensing
Threat assessment
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Summary:Climate change threatens many well‐preserved archaeological sites in the Arctic. The paper presents the first Arctic multi‐threat assessment focusing on the Nuuk region of Greenland. The results suggest that the majority of the 336 known archaeological sites are already exposed to impacts from microbial degradation, permafrost thaw and vegetation, and that these impacts will increase over the next 80 years. Additional impacts from coastal erosion are only noted at a limited number of sites due to a predominant consolidated and uplifting coast. The applied methods represent an important first step to identify threatened sites and emphasize important data limitations.
ISSN:0003-813X
1475-4754
DOI:10.1111/arcm.12593