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International Polar Year 2007-2008 Thomas McGovern for the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO): Island Connections: Comparative Historical Ecology in Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland (a MARENA project) Description The project seeks to provide the long term perspective of historical ecology and the methods of environmental archaeology, multi-proxy paleoecology, and well-validated high resolution landscape models to the investigation of three strongly contrasting case studies of long term human-environmental interaction following the initial colonization of the three island groups by a common Scandinavian culture during the Viking Age just over a thousand years ago. Recent archaeology, paleoecology, and integrative agro-climatic modeling indicate that the Faroese may have established economic patterns permitting long term sustainable use on the millennial scale of both terrestrial and marine resources by the early medieval period. The Icelandic story now seems to reflect both successes and failures in long term sustainable terrestrial resource use in a context of dramatic environmental change following first introductions of European domestic animals and farming systems. Icelandic society may have been nearly overwhelmed by late medieval/early modern rapid climate change, but was rescued in part by the resilience of a maritime fishing tradition now known to extend to first settlement, and has become a prosperous modern nation despite widespread severe soil erosion. In Greenland, the collapse of the Norse Eastern Settlement ca 1450 AD is still poorly understood, but available evidence indicates a radically different marine adaptation and pattern of landuse from either Iceland or Faroes may have played a role in the ultimate failure to maintain long term sustainability in the face of culture contact and climate change. These three cases have clear relevance to modern northern peoples also faced by rapid climate change, resource fluctuation, and challenges in sustainably integrating maritime hunting and fishing economies with terrestrial farming and hunting strategies. In summer 2005 international NABO teams have carried out a pilot program of coordinated field projects involving extensive exchange of personnel and sharing of resources (Faroese students working in Iceland and Greenland, Icelandic students working in Faroes: Danish, Finnish, UK, and N American students working in all three projects, joint-use Landrovers putting in extensive ferry time). This direct inter-island cooperation allows not only direct comparability in field methods and data analysis and reporting, but also pools human, logistical, and institutional resources to achieve results beyond the capacity of any national team. The current and proposed cooperative effort also makes use of the educational experience of the NABO international field schools in Iceland (U Iceland, CUNY, U Oslo) and in Shetland (U Bradford) and the innovative NSF OPP funded Northern Research Experience for Undergraduates (directed by Sophia Perdikaris CUNY) successfully drawing successive classes of multi-ethnic inner-city students into graduate careers in northern research since 2000. The Connections project thus intends to connect different generations of researchers from different national traditions to combine research continuity with innovation, student to student peer mentoring with intergenerational apprenticeships, and youthful energy with multi-decadal field experience- just as in any well functioning northern village. In addition to providing solidly based natural and social science data and analysis to global attempts to understand long term human ecodynamics, the Connections project will directly aid modern northern institutions and communities in the three islands to better manage the current explosion of ecological and cultural tourism spreading across the region. The Connections project will help local museums and heritage centers to develop effective, attractive, and scientifically current interactive digital displays and outreach materials useful for both local heritage conservation and for international visitors. By supporting direct contacts between local institutions and heritage associations, the Connections project will aid community efforts to share best-practice experience in responsibly and effectively managing tourism and to pool resources and ideas to also achieve results beyond the reach of any single community or local organization. Current work under the NABO / MARENA aegis has clearly demonstrated the scientific and educational value of inter-island interdisciplinary collaboration and comparison, and we believe that we are now at the threshold of a new level of integration with genuinely transformational potential. The Island Connections project thus plans to address IASSA and national IPY goals in fostering innovative international systems science, enhancing northern education and outreach, and creating a major and lasting IPY legacy in connecting scholars, students, and communities in the study area and providing all with common resources for threshold-crossing advances in international cooperation in science and education. Current institutional participants include: City University of New York, U Iceland, West Fjords Science Center, Mývatn Science Center, Archaeological Institute Iceland, U Holar (Iceland), Faroes Museum, Greenland National Museum and Archives, Narsaq Museum, Qaqortoq Museum, SILA Center (Denmark), U Bradford, U Durham, U Edinburgh, U Stirling. Questions? Contact Anne Sudkamp at <fyiassa@uaf.edu>. [Home page]
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