Title: Beginning with Barentsz: First historical-archaeological steps in the reconstruction of a pre-contact Arctic ecosystem
Speaker: Dr Frigga Kruse (Kiel University)
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1596: Looking for a northern sea route to Cathay, the Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz chances upon a barren land. Arctic Spitsbergen: unpeopled, unclaimed, potentially full of adventure and promise.
2022: A wealth of historical documents and archaeological remains now bear witness to 420 years of human activity and natural-resource exploitation in the Svalbard archipelago. Full of scientific promise; by no means unproblematic.
Kruse is the first Freigeist Fellow of the Volkswagen Foundation at Kiel University, Germany. Over five years, she and her team are going through the sources with a fine-toothed comb, focusing on the commercial hunt of bowhead whales, Atlantic walrus, polar bears, Arctic foxes, and Svalbard reindeer. Their aim is to trace this particular and intensive form of human-induced environmental change back to the pre-contact ecosystem of the region.
In this talk, we will take a closer look at the account of Barentsz’ expedition and other selected evidence for human-animal relationships in the Arctic in a time of rapid change. They will provide us with an introduction to the region and the project, and we will gain an insight into their multi- and transdisciplinary potential.