Mitigating climate change effects on cultural heritage?
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Authors
Martens, Vibeke Vandrup
Editors
Meharry, J. Eva
Haboucha, Rebecca
Comer, Margaret
Illustrators
Martens, Vibeke Vandrup
Hafsal, Nils A.
Bergersen, Ove
Martens, Vibeke V.
Vorenhout, Michel
Seither, Anna
Contributors
Bergersen, Ove
Hollesen, Jørgen
Lind, Keth
Matthiesen, Henning
Myrstad, Ragnhild
Sandvik, Paula U.
Vorenhout, M.
Publication Date
2017-11-20Journal Title
Archaeological Review from Cambridge
Series
Archaeological Review from Cambridge: Volume 32.2: On the Edge of the Anthropocene?
ISSN
0261-4332
Publisher
Archaeological Review from Cambridge
Volume
32
Issue
2
Pages
123-140
Language
English
Type
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Martens, V. V. (2017). Mitigating climate change effects on cultural heritage?. Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 32 (2), 123-140. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.23644
Abstract
How fast do archaeological deposits, soil features and artefacts degrade? Is it possible to preserve archaeological remains in situ without significant loss of information potential? Modern archaeology and heritage management needs to prepare for and respond to modern climate change, causing higher temperatures, increased and more concentrated precipitation events and changes from snow to rain which may lead to an irrevocable loss of information. This paper suggests sets of threshold levels and threat evaluations of heritage sites, possible mitigation and management strategies, on a basis of archaeological observations and results of palaeoecological and geochemical analyses of archaeological deposits from rural sites in northernmost Norway, combined with climate data and continuous monitoring of soil temperature, moisture and redox potential in sections. This data, collected in an interdisciplinary research project, constitutes the basic research material for evaluations of conservation state and preservation conditions. Decay studies indicate that many site types may be at risk with the predicted climate change. The results have consequences for heritage management of a large number of sites from all periods.
Keywords
climate change, arctic archaeology, cultural heritage management, preservation
Identifiers
This record's DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.23644
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/276346
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Licence URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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