Indiana Jones: Myth, Reality And 21st Century Archaeology

The archaeology of northern, cold climate environments is often considered a world onto itself. Recently, the regions of the North Atlantic have emerged as critical barometers in assessing patterns of human adaptation to climatic and landscape change. This is because of the unique utility of such environments to preserve records of ecological transition. The Greenland ice cores have arguably furnished the most complete archive of climate change in the world. Human settlements in these stark landscapes are diagnostic indicators of whether humans could survive climatic stress or not. The question of the initial Euroamerican settlement of the New World, by the Vikings or Columbus, continues to fascinate professionals and laypeople alike. In this episode we interview Dr. Thomas McGovern, one of the leading experts in the field of North Atlantic eco-systems and settlement geography to get a contemporary view on the state of the field.