Greenland Response

“We are happy to share a new film with you highlighting the collaborative work of the NSF supported grant "Coproduction of knowledge and the building of local archaeological capacity in Greenland" or RESPONSE for short (NSF Arctic Social Science Program 1821284) to Hunter College CUNY (principle investigators Tom McGovern, Jette Arneborg, Konrad Smiarowski, Christian K Madsen, and Ian Simpson).

The film is also an outcome of the #Bifrost sub-award of the project "Coproduction of Knowledge and Building Archaeological Capacity in Greenland (NSF 1821284)" at University of Iceland managed by Steven Hartman.

This is the product of Michael Nielsen (Greenland Museum and Archives) and Alice Watterson (U Iceland) and is part of a long running collaboration between Greenlandic institutions and our host community in the UNESCO Kujataa world heritage area and the international, interdisciplinary North Atlantic Biocultural Organization research and education cooperative (www.nabohome.org) based at CUNY. We are profoundly grateful to all who helped to make the project a success, especially the dauntless multinational field crews and our community hosts.” (Professor Thomas H McGovern, Director, Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Anthropology Dept.Hunter College CUNY. Director of UNESCO-MOST Bridges Thematic Hub CUNY-Princeton.)

We welcome all to take a look at this short film exploring the archaeologies of climate change in UNESCO Kujataa.

Film information:

Archaeological sites across the circumpolar north are rapidly degrading as a consequence of rising global temperatures. This short film shares the story of the Greenland RESPONSE project and the archaeologists racing to record and rescue what is left. Focussing on the sub-arctic farming landscape of Kujataa, south Greenland, the film documents the excavations of Norse (Viking) farming settlements dating between the 10th-14th centuries, while exploring the very tangible connections to present-day Inuit farming communities working the same soil.

The film is a mixture of English and Kalaallisut. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation with support from the Greenland National Museum, UNESCO-MOST Bridges, NABO and the University of Iceland.

The film can be viewed here

Please see the Greenland Museums website and the Kujataa website  for more information.