Circumpolar Musings: Circumpolar History

Frosty time machine coughs up arrowheads

Amanda Graham — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 07:23:24 GMT

(Ida Korneliussen/ScienceNordic, 20 February 2013) -- When Stone Age hunters missed their targets they inadvertently turned snow patches into treasure chests. ... The bow is nocked and released. The arrow zings through the air. But this was an especially unfortunate shot. Not only did it miss the prey, the arrow drove deep into a snow patch. For some reason it wasn’t retrieved. But it didn’t disappear for good. “We archaeologists are reliant on hunters missing like that,” says Martin Callanan, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where he teaches in the Department of Archaeology and Religious Studies. “When arrows disappeared deep into snow they sometimes froze there for keeps, until we find them,” he says. One of his favourite artefacts is the arrow that disappointed a hunter 5,400 years ago. Callanan and other NTNU researchers are working with an international project called Snow Patch Archaeology Research Cooperation (SPARC), which has as one of its goals the finding and analysing of hunting weapons in perennial mountain snow patches around the country.

The perils of early Arctic exploration

Amanda Graham — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:20:20 GMT

(Cathy Hunter/National Geographic News Watch, 14 December 2012) -- [The thirty-three founders of the National Geographic Society were an adventurous and accomplished group. They included scientists, explorers, a journalist and a superintendent of the National Zoo. In recognition of the National Geographic Society’s upcoming 125th anniversary this series takes a look at their stories.] A.W. Greely’s 1881 Arctic expedition tragically demonstrated the hardships and deadliness of attempts to explore the Far North. Despite his achievements before and after the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, his reputation would forever be tainted. ... In 1881, Greely was in charge of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition to the Arctic in order to establish one of a chain of international circumpolar weather stations. This expedition began as part of the first International Polar Year, reached the high latitudes of Canada north of Baffin Bay as well as crossing Ellesmere Island for the first time, charting parts of the coast of Greenland, and achieving a new northern record of 83 degrees, 24 minutes. Unfortunately, two relief ships failed to appear. Commander Winfield Scott Schley at the head of a third relief vessel finally made it–but by then it was 1884, and 18 of the 25 men had died.

Arctic convoy veterans to get medal after years of campaigning

Amanda Graham — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:08:45 GMT

(Nick Hopkins/The Guardian, 19 December 2012) -- s of the Arctic convoys that supplied Russia with vital fuel, food and munitions during the second world war are finally to be awarded their own medal after years of campaigning for proper recognition of their bravery. David Cameron has announced that a review by the former diplomat Sir John Holmes, who was asked to look at rules on military decorations, had concluded the Arctic veterans should have their own medal to mark "the very difficult work they did". The review also said that veterans of Bomber Command had been "treated inconsistently with those who served in Fighter Command" and should also be entitled to a special RAF clasp. ... The Arctic convoys are credited with having played an important role in buoying Russia as Hitler mounted an invasion. ... More than 3,000 seamen were killed during 78 convoys that delivered 4m tons of cargo. Eight-five merchant ships and 16 Royal Navy vessels were destroyed. It is thought 66,500 men sailed on the convoys, but only 200 are alive today. One of them, Commander Eddie Grenfell, said it should not have taken 67 years to get the recognition of a star medal.

Canada, Norway, Arctic parliamentarians want Russian indigenous org back at Arctic Council

Amanda Graham — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 22:25:02 GMT

(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News, 16 November 2012) -- Ministers from Canada and Norway, along with Arctic Parliamentarians, want the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East back at the Arctic Council. Canadian officials will continue to monitor what happens to the RAIPON, says Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq, also the federal minister responsible for the Arctic Council. That comment follows a recent move by Russia’s ministry of Justice to suspend the operations of RAIPON, a move that came under fire at a meeting of the Arctic Council this past week in Haparanda, Sweden. “Our government supports the promotion of basic values—freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, Aglukkaq told Nunatsiaq News Nov. 16. Aglukkaq’s statement echoes that of the Nov. 14 statement from senior Arctic officials from the Arctic Council’s eight member nations — including Russia — and from the other five indigenous Arctic organizations which sit as permanent participants on the council. Their statement expressed concern about the suspension and its impact on RAIPON’s absence at the council, asking “the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to facilitate, as appropriate, the fulfilment of RAIPON’s important role as a permanent participant in the Arctic Council.”

Bound for the Klondike gold fields (animated stereogram)

Amanda Graham — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 19:29:00 GMT

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

Boy discovers well-preserved mammoth

Amanda Graham — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 19:42:41 GMT

(IOL SciTech, 5 October 2012) -- Moscow - A boy living in Russia's remote north has found the well-preserved remains of a 30,000-year-old adult mammoth, according to media reports on Thursday. The discovery was made near a weather station in the eastern Taimyr region, some 3,000 kilometres north-east of Moscow. News reports identified the boy as Yevgeny Salinder, son of a couple working at the Sopkarga polar weather station. Salinder reportedly discovered the animal during a walk. News reports said the remains were that of a male mammoth aged 15 or 16 years, and that its skin, meat, fat hump and organs were extremely well-preserved. According to the Pravda.ru news website, the last time mammoth remains of such quality were discovered in Russia was in 1901. Scientists used axes, picks and a steam-blaster to melt the permafrost in an extraction operation lasting a week, the report said. The mammoth probably died in the summer because it lacked an undercoat and had a large reserve of fat, the report quoted Aleksei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as saying.

Government of Canada’s search for lost Franklin ships delivers numerous collateral results

Amanda Graham — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 18:01:10 GMT

(Government of Canada press release via Heritage Daily, 21 September 2012) -- The Honourable Peter Kent, Minister of Environment and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, today gave an update on this summer’s Arctic archaeological survey led by Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Service to find the ill-fated 1845-1846 Franklin Expedition vessels: HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. “The search for the lost Franklin vessels continues, but I can unequivocally say that this year’s survey was by far our most successful one to date,” said Minister Kent. “I would like to congratulate all our amazing partners who were part of this Canadian-led research team. They reached new heights with this project, and I look forward to seeing what new possibilities open up in time for next year’s continued search.” This year, the search team ruled out more than 400 square kilometres in Canada’s vast Arctic waters, almost tripling the coverage of past field seasons and further narrowing the search for the elusive wrecks of the Franklin Expedition. With almost four weeks spent in the Arctic, the team employed a multitude of scientific data that will also greatly benefit Canada’s understanding and knowledge of the Arctic. Working from both the research vessel, Martin Bergmann, supplied by the Arctic Research Foundation, and Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the survey time was significantly extended compared to previous years. In addition to Parks Canada’s underwater archaeologists searching for the Franklin vessels, the broader project team included the Arctic Charting and Mapping Pilot Project, led by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Canadian Hydrographic Service. This project allowed for the collection of data for the production of official navigational charts in the Arctic, while supporting, marine archaeology and ecosystem management objectives.

Russia’s input to Arctic exploration

Amanda Graham — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 21:19:56 GMT

(The Voice of Russia, 2 September 2012) -- Many centuries of studies and exploration of the Arctic territories are filled with multitudes of vivid, large-scale and, at times, dramatic events. The Arctic map is a hymn to man’s spirit. It shows the names of islands, gulfs and mountains that immortalize their discoverers. It is in large part due to Russian explorers that the lands of the North became an adequately studied and accessible part of the globe. Of course, explorers from other countries also studied the Arctic but it rarely became a tradition in a full l sense of this word. Many generations of Russian pioneers and researchers contributed colossal efforts, expertise funds and often their lives to the exploration of the Arctic region. In their quest for the North Pole they discovered new lands, seas, islands and archipelagos. Thanks to Russian explorers mankind learned about the existence of Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands, the Chukchi Peninsula, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska. The Russians were the first to prove that Asia and America were separated by a strait. Russian polar navigators purposefully explored Arctic sea and river routes, studied the Arctic Ocean and played a prominent part in charting the Northern Sea Route. Since 1914 Russian airmen have been conquering the airspace above the Arctic.

Ancient history of circumarctic peoples illuminated

Amanda Graham — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:01:50 GMT

(University of Pennsylvania press release, 18 May 2012) -- For many of these populations, this is the first time their genetics have been analyzed on a population scale. One study, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, focuses on the Haida and Tlingit communities of southeastern Alaska. The other study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, considers the genetic histories of three groups that live in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Establishing shared markers in the DNA of people living in the circumarctic region, the team of scientists uncovered evidence of interactions among the tribes during the last several thousand years. The researchers used these clues to determine how humans migrated to and settled in North America as long as 20,000 years ago, after crossing the land bridge from today's Russia, an area known as Beringia. Penn houses the Genographic Project's North American research center. "These studies inform our understanding of the initial peopling process in the Americas, what happened after people moved through and who remained behind in Beringia," said author Theodore Schurr, an associate professor in Penn's Department of Anthropology and the Genographic Project principal investigator for North America.

Canadian family finds ancient bison skeleton in their basement

Amanda Graham — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:31:59 GMT

(Brett Smith for Redorbit.com) Canadian Craig Duncan was digging a trench in the basement of his new house in the Yukon Territory capital of Whitehorse when he stumbled over something unusual. “We were down about three feet, sifting through some of the stones down there to lay the electrical lines when I kicked what looked like a piece of bone,” Duncan said in an interview with the Canadian Press. “First, I thought it could be a dinosaur or something, but when we saw the hoof, we thought it could be a horse or a bison.” The next morning, Duncan went to the Yukon Department of Tourism and Culture to notify government archeologists and paleontologists of his findings. "They got pretty excited. It was pretty funny — they just basically all came running," he said. Within hours the excavation team began digging and eventually uncovered a nearly complete prehistoric bison skull and skeleton, a rare find in this remote area of northwestern Canada. “There have only been about 10 partial bison finds in the Yukon and nothing as complete as a full skeleton,” said Grant Zazula, a paleontologist with the Yukon government. “We expect findings in the Dawson area, but we would never have thought we’d find something like this in the city.” Zazula added that the bison likely died an accidental death while roaming the area where Duncan’s house now stands. "We're finding little shells of snails and what not. And if I took a guess, it was probably an animal on the ice that probably fell through," he said. The bones have yet to carbon dated, but researchers estimate they may be 10,000 years old, about the same time Homo sapiens were taking the first steps toward civilization. The bones are believed to be remnants of one of two ancient groups of bison which roamed the Whitehorse area as early as the last ice age.

Wooly mammoth found in Siberia is remarkably well preserved

Amanda Graham — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:32:37 GMT

(RedOrbit, 5 April 2012) -- A young, entombed wooly mammoth has been discovered in Siberia near the Arctic Ocean. Nicknamed “Yuka,” the mammoth has been described by discoverers as being “remarkably well preserved” despite being cut open by ancient people. Yuka was discovered in Siberia during an expedition funded in part by the BBC and the Discovery Channel and is believed to be at least 10,000 years old. The discoverers believe this finding could possibly provide proof of early human interaction in the Siberian region. Yuka remains in excellent condition, thanks to the freezing cold temperatures of Siberia. In fact, much of the meat is still intact, retaining a pink color. Strawberry blond hair covers the mammoth. Daniel Fisher, curator and director of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology told Discovery News, “This is the first relatively complete mammoth carcass — that is, a body with soft tissues preserved — to show evidence of human association.” Working with an international team of experts, Fisher will help to analyze Yuka and to retrieve genetic samples from the carcass. The team is also conducted carbon dating on Yuka, but believe the mammoth to have died at least 10,000 years ago. They believe the mammoth to have been about 2 1/2 to 4 years old when it died. Judging from wounds found on the mammoth and other cuts and breaks, the team believe Yuka may have fallen prey to lions before humans came along to finish the job. “It appears that Yuka was pursued by one or more lions or another large field, judging from deep, unhealed scratches in the hide and bite marks on the tail,” Fisher said. “Yuka then apparently fell, breaking one of the lower hind legs. At this point, humans may have moved in to control the carcass, butchering much of the animal and removing parts that they would use immediately. They may, in fact, have reburied the rest of the carcass to keep it in reserve for possible later use. What remains now would then be ‘leftovers’ that were never retrieved.” While most of Yuka’s innards are missing, such as organs, ribs, vertebrae, and some meat, the lower parts of each leg and the trunk remain incredibly well preserved.

New book tells overlooked tale of U.S. icebreaker Manhattan

Amanda Graham — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:51:38 GMT

(J. Pennelope Goforth/Alaska Dispatch, 1 April 2012) -- Ask any Alaskan if they have heard of the Manhattan and you’re likely to get a blank stare. Granted, it was more than 40 years ago -- but the voyage of the leviathan oil tanker Manhattan through the Northwest Passage in 1969 launched the American rush to Arctic resources. Now, a new book by Ross Coen, Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil: The Epic Voyage of the SS Manhattan Through the Northwest Passage, tells the story of the ship. As the biography of an extraordinary vessel, the basic story is riveting enough: massive ship built as a fluke gains worldwide attention and becomes famous. Coen takes it further, placing the Manhattan at the nexus of global oil industry competitiveness and then weaving in the age-old question of who has the right of passage over the seas. Even before her bow crushed any ice, she spun the compass on conventional ways of thinking about the technology of moving millions of barrels of crude oil while accommodating nascent ideas of environmental protection. On the political intrigue front, Coen shows how the course of the ship’s trip through the waters of the Canadian Archipelago challenged the world’s notions of the sovereignty of the fabled Northwest Passage itself. These issues still persist today. The discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay not long before the Manhattan's journey cranked up the engines of the oil industry as they puzzled out how to get millions of barrels of crude oil from the frozen north to thirsty world markets. In a completely breathtaking move, Humble Oil & Refining Co. grabbed the helm, launching the Arctic Tanker Test. Their intent was to test a model of safely and profitably shipping oil through the ice fields, a feat no other industry rival had attempted. They boldly re-forged an obscure giant cargo ship into a mammoth ice-breaking oil tanker. Coen explains this marvel of modern science with exacting detail describing hull sensors, TV cameras and a wealth of technological breakthroughs.

Arctic explorer’s magnetic measurements ring true

Amanda Graham — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:01:51 GMT

(Ned Rozell / Alaska Science Forum via Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 1 April 2012) -- FAIRBANKS - More than a century ago, Roald Amundsen and his crew were the first to sail through the Northwest Passage, along the way leaving footprints in Eagle, Nome and Sitka. Pioneering that storied route was a dream of Amundsen’s since his boyhood in Norway, but he also performed enduring science on the three-year voyage of the Gjøa. Amundsen, from Norway, was 30 years old when, in the early 1900s, he envisioned and then executed this plan: “With a small vessel and a few companions, to penetrate into the regions around earth’s north magnetic pole, and by a series of accurate observations, extending over a period of two years, to relocate the pole observed by Sir James Ross in 1831.” ... Though the conquest of the Northwest Passage brought Amundsen worldwide fame, his devotion to science was real. Instead of blasting through the passage, he and his crew halted the Gjøa to spend the winter in a bay off King William Island in Canada’s Arctic. There, they set up a base called “Gjøahaven,” or Gjøa Harbor. They killed 100 reindeer for winter meat to feed man and dog, met the local natives, exchanged their wool clothes for furs and watched the ice form on the ocean in early October 1903. They also built a magnetic observatory out of shipping crates. They held it together with nails containing no iron. They covered the hut with tundra to keep out the light, because photographic paper recorded their magnetic observations. Inside the building were four instruments sensitive to variations of Earth’s magnetic field. A few oil lamps heated and lit the observatory, which was so snug that Amundsen and crewman Gustav Wiik probably both suffered heart-muscle damage from carbon monoxide poisoning during the 19 months they faithfully tended the instruments. ... The data set is so good that Charles Deehr, a space physicist and aurora forecaster at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute, who posts forecasts of northern lights at http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast, said the information is similar to data he gets today from satellites parked in the solar wind, a flow of the sun’s particles that excites the aurora into action.

Ledger sheds light on Arctic convoys history

Amanda Graham — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:18:28 GMT

(Laurence Ford/North Star, 22 March 2012) -- A WESTER Ross family heirloom is providing vital information about a key part of World War II history. The MacIver family have inherited their father George’s meticulously handwritten sales ledger, which covers the sales of food to the Merchant Navy ships on Loch Ewe from the family shop in Aultbea, from September 1942 to October 1943. They have now donated the ledger to the Russian Arctic Convoy Museum project, which is planning a museum in Aultbea as a lasting legacy to all those that took in the nightmare Arctic convoys during the war. The significance of the ledger came to light when Annabelle MacKenzie, formerly MacIver, from Inverness, contacted the museum group when she saw a Remembrance Day television news item about the Arctic convoys which was filmed at Aultbea last November. It quickly became apparent that her father’s book was extremely important, giving a carefully and accurately written listing of every one of the ships that were anchored in Loch Ewe, either before or after their gruelling convoy trips to Russia. As the area was top secret during the war, very little is known of the ships’ movements and so the ledger gives a rare insight into what was happening on Loch Ewe during parts of 1942-43. Annabelle told the North Star: “We are so thrilled that this sales ledger from our dad’s shop in Aultbea is proving to be such an important reference book for the museum project. “We never thought it would be so significant. Our family are very happy to hear of the plans to develop a museum in Aultbea to commemorate the part the area played in World War II.” She added: “Our father ran the grocer’s shop at the bottom of Tighnafiline, which is still there. “As well as serving local folk from a wide area, he supplied the merchant ships during the Arctic convoys. ... Annabelle added: ‘We are so pleased to be able to donate our family heirloom to the future Russian Arctic Convoy Museum – a very appropriate place to keep the ledger for future generations to view, back in its home village of Aultbea.” For further information about the Museum Project and the WWII event, visit www.russianarcticconvoymuseum.co.uk

Former Exxon Valdez, now Oriental Nicety, sold for scrap

Amanda Graham — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:48:33 GMT

(Bill Bowen/Dallas News, 20 March 2012) -- What do you do when your name becomes linked with one of the most horrific environmental disasters in American history – and no one wants you around anymore? In the case of the Exxon Valdez, arguably the most famous ship of modern times, you move and you change your name. Twenty-three years after the oil supertanker became synonymous with what its Irving-based owner at the time calls "one of the lowest points in ExxonMobil's 125-year history," the ship is slated for the scrap heap. After six name changes and several ownership shuffles – and a 2010 collision in the South China Sea - the ship has been sold as scrap for $16 million and was under her own power Tuesday afternoon to Singapore and a coming date with one of the several "ship breakers" along the shores of the Indian Ocean. That will mark the end of the most well-known ship afloat. The Valdez, (pronounced val-deez) was only 3 years old when it ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, spilling at least 11 million gallons of crude into the fragile ecosystem of the bay, killing tens of thousands of seabirds and other marine life and damaging 700 miles of coastline. "It was a tragic accident and one we deeply regret," Alan Jeffers, an ExxonMobil spokesman said on Tuesday. The disaster cost ExxonMobil, more than $4 billion in cleanup costs, civil settlements and damages and incalculable harm to its reputation. ... The disaster in Prince William Sound caused Exxon Mobil to re-examine its operating practices. "As a result of the accident we took a number of reforms and adopted a system that is now industry-leading for environmental and safety performance," ExxonMobil's Jeffers said Tuesday, citing the company's maritime safety record since. "That is really the result of an effort that came out of the Valdez accident." The company is now building two double-hulled tankers at the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard for delivery in 2014. They are smaller than the Exxon Valdez and will replace two others in the SeaRiver Maritime Fleet.

War memorial to honor WWII reindeer battalions

Amanda Graham — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:53:40 GMT

(Trude Petersen/BarentsObserver, 27 February 2012) -- During World War II the Soviet Army established the world’s only reindeer transport battalion. More than 1000 reindeer herders and 6000 reindeer were mobilized from Nenets Autonomous Okrug to the Karelian Front. In addition to the Nenets, also reindeer herders from Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Komi districts were mobilized to the front. During 1944, the Karelian Front participated in the final offensive against Finland which led to the Soviet-Finnish armistice. In October 1944 it conducted the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation, capturing parts of northern Finland and liberating the easternmost parts of Norway from German occupation. The Karelian Front conducted the only successful major military operation ever undertaken in an Arctic environment in modern warfare. Reindeer proved to be very useful in Arctic operations. One reindeer can pull up to 50 kg on a sledge behind it. They transported not only food and ammunition, they also carried urgent orders to officers and they carried mail, wounded soldiers and pilots from downed aircrafts back to their lines. The reindeer were even successfully used to pull downed aircrafts back to sites and units where they could be repaired. Read more about ethnic minorities and warfare at the Arctic front 1939-1945 here.

Volcanic origin for Little Ice Age

Amanda Graham — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:52:00 GMT

(Richard Black/BBC News, 30 January 2012) -- The Little Ice Age was caused by the cooling effect of massive volcanic eruptions, and sustained by changes in Arctic ice cover, scientists conclude. An international research team studied ancient plants from Iceland and Canada, and sediments carried by glaciers. They say a series of eruptions just before 1300 lowered Arctic temperatures enough for ice sheets to expand. Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, they say this would have kept the Earth cool for centuries. The exact definition of the Little Ice Age is disputed. While many studies suggest temperatures fell globally in the 1500s, others suggest the Arctic and sub-Arctic began cooling several centuries previously. The global dip in temperatures was less than 1C, but parts of Europe cooled more, particularly in winter, with the River Thames in London iced thickly enough to be traversable on foot. What caused it has been uncertain. The new study, led by Gifford Miller at the University of Colorado at Boulder, US, links back to a series of four explosive volcanic eruptions between about 1250 and 1300 in the tropics, which would have blasted huge clouds of sulphate particles into the upper atmosphere.

Archeologists: Eric the Red brewed ale in Greenland

Amanda Graham — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:26:53 GMT

(Iceland Review, 30 January 2012) -- Archeologists from the Danish National Museum have now proven that Eric the Red, who founded the Icelandic settlement in Greenland at the end of the tenth century AD, and his contemporaries were able to brew ale. There have long been speculations whether the climate in the southernmost part of Greenland was warm enough in the Viking era to growing cereals for brewing ale, the staple beverage of Vikings, make porridge and bake bread, visir.is reports. Now archeologists have found remains of burnt barley in a dunghill that dates back to the time of Eric the Red’s settlement in Greenland and is the first indication of cereal growing in the country’s southernmost part a millennium ago. The Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten states that the archeologists are very proud of their discovery and now intend to move 300 kilos of the dunghill to Denmark for further research. Click here to read an earlier report about barley being grown in Greenland.

70th anniversary of British soldiers' rescue in Iceland

Amanda Graham — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:51:36 GMT

(IceNews, 23 January 2012) -- This weekend marked 70 years since residents of the Veturhús farm near Eskifjörður, east Iceland, saved the lives of over 40 British soldiers. The soldiers had set off on foot from Reyðarfjörður over the mountains hoping to reach Eskifjörður. They set off in good weather on the morning of the 20th January 1942. As the day progressed they encountered severe wind and snowfall. A total of 60 British soldiers were on the trek and eight of them died. The ill-fated walk and the ensuing rescue effort were commemorated yesterday at Veturhús, with flowers, candles and flags; as well as speeches and readings from media and personal accounts from the time. Magnús Pálsson, one of the rescuers from 70 years ago, was invited to the British embassy in Reykjavík, where he received official recognition and tribute from the British military. Mayor of Fjarðabyggð (where Veturhús is located) Jens Garðar Helgason, told Vísir.is that the recognition was more than deserved following the bravery and selflessness shown by the young Magnús, his siblings and their mother on that fateful day.

Feds deny export permit for Arctic shipwreck

Amanda Graham — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:01:58 GMT

(CBC News, 17 December 2011) -- The federal government has denied an export permit for the Baymaud shipwreck resting in waters off Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. A group of investors wants to move the 100-year old wreck to Norway to be the centerpiece of a museum. The ship, originally named the Maud, was built to the specifications of Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen. Amundsen, a national hero in Norway, led the first successful sailing expedition through the Northwest Passage in the early 1900s. He sailed the Maud to the Arctic in the hopes of reaching the North Pole, but after several unsuccessful attempts, Amundsen was not able to pay his debts and the Maud was eventually seized by creditors. The ship was sold to the Hudson Bay Company in 1926 and renamed the Baymaud. It was used as a floating warehouse and wireless station in Cambridge Bay until it developed a leak and began sinking in 1930. It is owned by people in the Norwegian community of Asker, who purchased the wreck from the Hudson Bay Company for $1 in 1990. The Norwegian group’s application for an export permit was refused earlier this week. "We were a bit surprised,” said Jan Wanggaard, a spokesperson for the group Maud Returns Home. ... Wanggaard said they are asking for a review of the decision to deny the export permit. That will likely take place in March. Wanggaard said the Canadian government wants to know more about how the extraction of the boat will take place, and also wants more archeological studies to be done. "We are willing to negotiate this because we want very much to bring this ship home."

Russian maps suggest Soviet subs cruised Canadian Arctic

Amanda Graham — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:34:46 GMT

(Bob Weber/CP via Globe and Mail, 6 December 2011) -- Sections of Cold-War-era nautical charts obtained by The Canadian Press suggest that Russian mariners have for decades possessed detailed and accurate knowledge of crucial internal waterways such as the Northwest Passage. Those charts, which may offer the first documentary proof of the widely held belief that Soviet nuclear submarines routinely patrolled the Canadian Arctic during the Cold War, are still in use by Russian vessels. In some places, they are preferred to current Canadian charts. “In some cases the Russian charts are more detailed than the Canadian ones and the navigators have them out on the chart table beside the Canadian ones in order to cross-reference any questionable soundings,” said Aaron Lawton of One Ocean Expeditions, an adventure tourism company that charters the Russian-owned ship Academik Ioffe for Arctic cruises. “I have travelled on the Ioffe in the Canadian Arctic for (many) seasons and have generally found that the vessel has always cross-referenced the Russian charts,” Mr. Lawton said in an e-mail from on board the Ioffe off the Antarctic coast. The Ioffe is owned by the Moscow-based P.P. Shirsov Institute of Oceanography. Vladimir Tereschenkov, head of marine operations, said the Russian charts were published by the Russian Hydrographic Service. The sections seen by The Canadian Press are photographs of charts in current use on the Ioffe. Compiled from information gleaned over the years up to 1970, they are clearly marked with Soviet insignia, including the red star and the hammer and sickle. Both sections are of highly strategic Arctic waterways. ... Both sections of the charts contain many more depth soundings than corresponding modern Canadian charts. ...the only way the Soviet government could have acquired data for the charts is from nuclear submarines secretly patrolling the Arctic. “It confirms what many of us assumed,” said Mr. Byers. “The Soviet navy was extremely capable and also was willing to take considerable risk. Sending submarines into the Canadian archipelago, which was heavily monitored by NATO, thousands of miles away from Soviet assistance, was a perilous thing to do. It was a phenomenal accomplishment.” Mr. Byers said the charts are the first public proof he’s seen of that theory. They suggest that the capabilities of the Soviet navy portrayed in movies may not be entirely fiction.

A mysterious fork leads to the story of the infamous Greely Expedition

Amanda Graham — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:43:45 GMT

(Cassie Mancer/O Say Can You See? – National Museum of American History, 4 November 2011) -- This story starts with a fork. As a contractor with the Military History Collections Inventory Project, my job is to count things. ... The inventory process requires that we check an object’s unique catalog number, track its location, take measurements and photographs, and then write a short description of the object. The fork itself has little to distinguish it from the other standard-issue Army silverware in our collection. The tag reads: “Fork owned by Lieut. Kislingbury, used at Cape Sabine by Brainard.” ... I wanted to confirm that I was reading the handwriting correctly before I updated our description, so I began with an Internet search. That is how I learned the story of the 25 men of the Greely Expedition, also known as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. ... Second Lieutenant Frederick Kislingbury, the owner of the fork, was second-in-command of the expedition party, and Sergeant David L. Brainard was chief of the enlisted men. Brainard and two companions would go on to accomplish the secondary goal of reaching a new "Farthest North." The expedition established a research station named Fort Conger at Lady Franklin Bay and began collecting hourly meteorological measurements such as temperature, wind speed, and barometric pressure. ... The fork has made a lasting impression on our team, and it’s especially poignant that the fork is from an expedition where so many died of starvation. The legacy of the tragic Greely Expedition remains relevant today, as the scientific measurements the members took while enduring unrelenting hardships are now being used by scientists to study climate change. ... In addition to the fork, the Division also has records and personal papers, photographs, flag fragments from Lady Franklin Bay, and scientific specimens from the expedition. Many of these objects were donated to the museum by David Brainard, others by John P. Kislingbury, Lieutenant Kislingbury’s brother; additional objects related to the expedition were loaned to the museum by Greely’s children.

PM accused of breaking pledge of medal for war convoy sailors

Amanda Graham — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:58:15 GMT

(Ian Drury/Daily Mail, 14 November 2011) -- They risked their lives again and again on what Churchill described as ‘the worst journey in the world’. The heroes of the Arctic Convoys ran the gauntlet of German warplanes and U-boats to keep the Soviet Union supplied on the Eastern Front. Even Russia has awarded commemorative medals to acknowledge its gratitude to the surviving sailors, more than 3,000 of whose comrades were killed. Yet David Cameron has refused to do the same. Yesterday, as the nation paid tribute to its war dead on Remembrance Sunday, disgusted veterans expressed anger that the Prime Minister had seemingly reneged on a pledge to introduce a specific Arctic Medal. ‘We feel completely and utterly betrayed,’ said Commander Eddie Grenfell, 91, the leader of the Arctic Medal campaign. ‘How can Cameron stand up and support us in public but privately say we don’t deserve a medal? It’s two-faced and wrong.’ In opposition, the Tories pledged to introduce an Arctic Medal if they won power. And in January this year, Mr Cameron indicated his continued support by telling MPs that the sailors who served on the Arctic Convoys had ‘missed out’. ... Mr Cameron now says the sailors have already been recognised with a medal for the separate naval campaign in the Atlantic. He writes: ‘It is clear that the Atlantic Star Medal that was extended to those who served in the Arctic specified the convoys in its qualifying criteria. Those who took part in the Arctic Convoys have therefore been recognised and received this medal as a mark of the nation’s gratitude.’ Ministry of Defence bureaucrats have repeatedly used this excuse to deny Arctic veterans their own award. But campaigners argue that 95 per cent of the 66,500 men who served in the Arctic Convoys had already earned the Atlantic Star before being conscripted on to the dreaded ‘Russian Run’.

VIDEO: Call to recognise Arctic convoy veterans

Amanda Graham — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:15:11 GMT

(Robert Hall/BBC News, 12 November 2011) -- There are calls for recognition for the sailors on the WWII Arctic Convoys who risked their lives to transport crucial supplies and munitions from Scotland to Russia. Although the bravery of the crews is not disputed, the men who served on the ships have never been officially recognised with a British campaign medal.

Kristnitakan - The Adoption of Christianity

Amanda Graham — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 08:32:27 GMT

(Katharina Hauptmann/Iceland Review, 9 November 2011) -- Throughout the history of mankind the Christianization of pagan countries has caused significant bloodshed. After all, forcing people to convert to another belief has always been a bloody and brutal business. Not so much in Iceland, though. In the Middle Ages, approximately 100 years after the settlement of Iceland in the 9th century, the vast majority of Icelanders were still worshipping the Norse gods. Only a few settlers (mostly slaves of Celtic origin) were Christian. We still don't know exactly how and when Icelanders abandoned their pagan belief in favor of Christianity so we have to rely on the few written sources we have. The most extensive sources mentioning these events are the Book of the Icelanders by Ari Thorgilsson, the Icelandic family sagas and Church chronicles about the first preachers and bishops. Thorgilsson's accounts of the events surrounding the conversion are widely considered reliable. ... ...the Christianization of Iceland is probably the most peaceful Christianization of all time. Christianity made it easier for foreign cultures to enter Iceland, as almost all neighboring countries had already adopted Christianity. With Christianity, the Icelandic literary tradition began with the teaching of reading and writing. Soon after the proclamation of Christianity the first church was built at Thingvellir, the place where the ancient parliament used to be located.

Rare coin gives currency to Chinese-First Nations link

Amanda Graham — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:19:42 GMT

(Randy Boswell/Postmedia News in The Vancouver Sun, 31 October 2011) -- A 340-year-old coin from China has been unearthed by archeologists near a planned gold mine in the Yukon, shedding fresh light on historic trade links between 17th-century Chinese merchants, Russian fur traders and First Nations in the northwest corner of North America. The coin is etched with traditional Chinese characters indicating it was minted during the Qing Dynasty reign of Emperor Kangxi, who ruled China from 1662 to 1722. But other information stamped on the money piece — which has a large central hole and four smaller ones — shows it was minted in China's Zhili province between 1667 and 1671. The coin was discovered during a dig near Western Copper and Gold Corp.'s proposed Casino mine site about 300 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse. A heritage impact assessment for the Vancouver mining company was being conducted by Ecofor Consulting Ltd., based in B.C. and the Yukon, when the find was made. Ecofor team leader James Mooney spotted the metal object as a co-worker dug into the ground on a height of land south of the Yukon River. "I was less than a metre from our archeologist Kirby Booker when she turned over the first shovel of topsoil and I caught sight of something dangling from the turf," Mooney said in a statement. "It was the coin — the neatest discovery I've ever been part of." Subsequent research revealed that it was just the third historic Chinese coin ever found in the Yukon, though many more have been recovered at archeological sites in coastal Alaska. "The coin adds to the body of evidence that the Chinese market connected with Yukon First Nations through Russian and coastal Tlingit trade intermediaries during the late 17th and 18th centuries, and perhaps as early as the 15th century," the statement said. Russian traders seeking furs from North American wildlife — including the sea otter, seal and beaver — are known to have exchanged tobacco, tea, kettles and other goods (some obtained from Chinese traders) with the Tlingit peoples of coastal Alaska.

RCMP 'herded' native kids to residential schools

Amanda Graham — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 19:16:25 GMT

(CBC News, 29 October 2011) -- Former aboriginal students who say the RCMP herded them off to residential schools are expressing a sense of validation following the release of a report into the Mounties' role in the notorious school system. However, not all the survivors believe the report will help with their healing. The RCMP released the report Saturday at a Halifax session of the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is looking into how 150,000 aboriginal children were taken from their families over more than a century. The 463-page report found that the RCMP had a major involvement in bringing students from First Nation communities to the residential schools. Various data sources were collected over a 30-month period between April 2007 and September 2009 to answer questions about the RCMP's relationship with schools, students, federal agencies and departments. ... The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been holding public sessions in Halifax since Wednesday. The report says that at times, RCMP withheld information from parents of residential school students about what was happening with their children, and at times they acted like truant officers to schools. "Students saw themselves herded like cattle and brought into RCMP cars and taken into school. What they say is that these stories have come out throughout the years, but what this does today is validate those stories and show that they were true," CBC reporter Michael Dick said in Halifax. RCMP stress in the report that the force did not know what was going on behind the schools' walls, where abuse was rampant, and that they were trying to act in the best interest with the information they knew at the time. The Mounties stressed that the abuse in residential schools happened all over the country. Approximately 150,000 aboriginal children were forced to attend residential schools. The Mounties were summoned to forcibly take the children to the schools if their families resisted sending them away.

Preview: Arctic Convoys, 1941-1945 @ National Maritime Museum

Amanda Graham — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:19:10 GMT

(Londonist, 20 October 2011) -- A new photographic exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich looks at the grim task faced by the crews of the Arctic convoys in the Second World War. Quick history recap. During WWII, vast amounts of food, munitions and other essentials were shipped around the world to support Allied campaigns. The most famous route (at least in this country [Britain]) involved perilous journeys across the Atlantic between North America and Britain. U-boats were a constant threat, and many lost their lives in mid-ocean encounters (on both sides, as depicted in the film Das Boot). Even more harrowing, if perhaps less well known today, were the Arctic convoys that shipped supplies to Russia’s northern coast. As well as facing the same threat of torpedo and aircraft attack, the crews also had to brave biting temperatures, huge waves, thick fog and treacherous ice floes. Churchill dubbed it ‘the worst journey in the world’. The National Maritime Museum’s exhibition marks 70 years since the first convoys left harbour. While mostly photographic, the show also includes paintings by war artists and clothing worn by sailors. Many of the photographs have never been shown in public before. After visiting, you can continue the chilly theme by heading down to the museum’s High Arctic exhibition, which continues until mid-January.

Did the orientation of the continents hinder ancient settlement of the Americas?

Amanda Graham — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:21:26 GMT

(Wiley-Blackwell press release via EurekAlert! 21 September 2011) -- In an intriguing original look at the history of the first Americans, a new study finds evidence that the north-south orientation of the American continents slowed the spread of populations and technology, compared to the east-west axis of Eurasia. The research, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, is part of a special section which explores who the first Americans were and how they were able to settle in the last great unexplored habitat. The research, by Sohini Ramachandran and Noah Rosenberg, from Brown University and Stanford University respectively, uses genetic information to explore the effects of continental axes and climates on human migration and adaptation across the Americas. "It has been proposed that the east-west orientation of the Eurasian landmass aided the rapid spread of ancient technological innovations, while the north-south orientation of the Americas led to a slower diffusion of technology there," said Ramachandran. "Our research develops this idea, arguing that continental orientation influenced migration patterns and played an important role in determining the structure of human genetic variation and the distribution and spread of cultural traits." The research supports the idea that technological diffusion was accelerated across Eurasia because populations with the same latitude experience similar climates, making adaptation to new locations easier for domesticated animals, plants and consequently humans. Alternatively, migrating along lines of longitude involves adapting to new climates.

Reindeer herder finds baby mammoth in Russia Arctic

Amanda Graham — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:09:02 GMT

(Alissa de Carbonnel/Reuters, 19 August 2011) - A reindeer herder in Russia's Arctic has stumbled on the pre-historic remains of a baby woolly mammoth poking out of the permafrost, local officials said on Friday. The herder said the carcass was as perfectly preserved as the 40,000-year-old mammoth calf Lyuba discovered in the same remote region four years ago, authorities said, adding that an expedition had set off hoping to confirm the "sensational" find. "If it is true what is said about how it is preserved, this will be another sensation of global significance," expedition leader Natalia Fyodorova said in a statement on the Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region's official website. Scientists planned to fly the mammoth's remains to the regional capital Salekhard, where it would be stored in a cooler to prevent the remains from decomposing. Giant woolly mammoths have been extinct since the Earth's last Ice Age 1.8 million to around 11,500 years ago. Scientists worldwide were stunned by the discovery of Lyuba, named after the wife of the hunter who discovered her. Arctic ice kept the extinct specimen so immaculately preserved that although her shaggy coat was gone, her skin and internal organs were intact.

Human jawbones unearthed near Point Hope hold ancient dietary clues

Amanda Graham — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:45:36 GMT

(Doug O'Harra/Alaska Dispatch, 16 August 2011) -- You are what you eat — and that maxim may include the shape and geometry of your jawbone. A lifetime of strenuous mastication on muktuk and tough wild meat harvested near the Chukchi Sea gave a group of pre-contact Inupiat Alaskans rounder and tougher jawbones, a finding that may offer physical anthropologists another method to sort out the dietary habits of other prehistoric peoples, says a research paper published this summer in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. It turns out that what people eat, and whether they they used their teeth to prep hides, gradually alters the structure of their mandibles in predictable ways, according to a study that used the X-ray guns and the principles of engineering stress to analyze 63 jawbones from Inupiat people who lived near the modern village of Point Hope 300 to 400 years ago. Scientists from the Johns Hopkins Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution compared these Alaskan remains to the jawbones from 42 Arikara Indians who lived in what is now South Dakota about the same time. They found dramatic differences that could be traced back to known differences in diet and lifestyle of the two groups.

QIA wants Ottawa to acknowledge dog slaughters

Amanda Graham — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:07:04 GMT

(Nunatsiaq Online, 9 August 2011) -- The Qikiqtani Inuit Association says it applauds the Quebec for acknowledging the dog slaughter that took place in Nunavik decades ago. “This is an important step towards building a more meaningful relationship based on trust between Inuit communities and government in Nunavik,” QIA President Okalik Eegeesiak said Aug. 9 in a news release. Quebec premier Jean Charest signed an agreement with Nunavik leaders Aug. 8, which recognizes the suffering that many Inuit families endured when their sled dogs were killed in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, the QIA hopes the federal government will acknowledge the findings of its Qikiqtani Truth Commission, which looked into similar allegations of dog slaughters in Nunavut communities and other traumatic events stemming from government policies. Those wrongdoings must be acknowledged in order for Inuit to move forward, Eegeesiak said. ... “The Inuit truth must be acknowledged by the federal government before the healing can begin for our region,” she said.

Famous Lewis chessmen originally from Iceland?

Amanda Graham — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:18:55 GMT

(IceNews, 6 August 2011) -- A chess piece recently discovered at Siglunes, Iceland could explain the origin of the mysterious Uig chessmen associated with the island of Lewis, off Scotland: they could originally have come from Iceland. A chessman newly dug up at an archaeological dig at Siglunes is remarkably similar to the famous Lewis chessmen and could mean they came from Iceland instead of from Norway, as usually assumed.The Lewis chessmen (or Uir chessmen) were found on the island of Lewis in 1830, RUV reported. They are thought to be from the 12th Century; and therefore the oldest modern-style chess pieces to have been found anywhere in the world. The Lewis chessmen are among the most prized exhibits at the British Museum. The piece found at Siglunes at the end of July looks extremely similar. The chessman is believed to be from the same period and exhibits similar workmanship and personal likeness the Lewis carvings. A conference is scheduled for the 19th August in Skalholt, South Iceland, where international delegates will discuss the Lewis chessmen and examine their newly-discovered Icelandic cousin.

33,000-year-old dog skull unearthed in Siberia

Amanda Graham — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:04:38 GMT

(Stone Pages ArchaeoNews, 4 August 2011) -- A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found. But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough. The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves. The archaeologists have detected that while its snout is similar in size to that of Greenland dogs found 1,000 years ago, it has teeth that would have resembled wild European wolves. This indicates a dog in the very early stages of domestication, says evolutionary biologist Dr Susan Crockford, one of the authors on the study. "The wolves were not deliberately domesticated, the process of making a wolf into a dog was a natural process," explained Dr Crockford of Pacific Identifications, Canada. But for this to happen required settled early human populations: "At this time, people were hunting animals in large numbers and leaving large piles of bones behind, and that was attracting the wolves," she said. The most curious, least fearful wolves tended to have more juvenile characteristics with shorter, wider snouts and smaller, more crowded teeth, features that, over generations, came to define the domesticated dog. These early dogs would have been useful to people in cleaning up scraps and fending off other predators, but over the last 10,000 years, they became key members of the team, believes Oxford University archaeologist Professor Thomas Higham, a co-author on the study. "Hunters with dogs are much better than sole hunters," he said. Intriguingly though, this much older early Siberian dog seems to have hit an evolutionary dead end. While people continued to occupy the Altai through the depths of the last ice age, they seem to have done so without their dogs, perhaps as food became more scarce. "What the ice age did was to cause people to move around more," said Dr Crockford, halting the process of domestication and setting wolves and people back into competition for perhaps 20,000 years. It also meant the competition for food between the wolves and humans continued.

Voices of Vision: Yukon Aboriginal Self-Government

Amanda Graham — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:22:52 GMT

(Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada) -- The Yukon is a land of trailblazers in Aboriginal self-government. Since 1995, 11 of Yukon's 14 First Nations have become self-governing, and account for more than half of the national total of self-governing First Nations. In this podcast series, Voices of Vision: Yukon Aboriginal Self-Government, some of the key people who have been involved in the continuing journey of self-government and implementation share their stories in their own words. The podcast series, Voices of Vision: Yukon Aboriginal Self-Government, was created in partnership with the Council of Yukon First Nations, the Government of Yukon, the Government of Canada and Self-Governing Yukon First Nations.

Painting of lost Arctic vessel HMS Terror comes to light after 175 years

Amanda Graham — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:31:03 GMT

(Randy Boswell/Postmedia News via Canada.com, 14 July 2011) -- A dramatic and previously unknown watercolour scene of Canada — painted during the golden age of Arctic exploration by that era's most legendary artist — has come to light in Britain after 175 years. The image of an enormous iceberg towering above the famous Arctic expedition ship HMS Terror and one of its rowboats was painted by Royal Navy artist-turned-admiral George Back, who captained the vessel during a trouble-plagued voyage to Hudson Bay in 1836. The painting, which has emerged from the obscurity of a Back family collection to be auctioned in London by Bonhams, is expected to fetch up to $25,000 at a maritime art sale in September.

Ancestry of polar bears traced to Ireland

Amanda Graham — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:20:17 GMT

(Penn State University press release, 7 July 2011) -- An international team of scientists has discovered that the female ancestor of all living polar bears was a brown bear that lived in the vicinity of present-day Britain and Ireland just prior to the peak of the last ice age, 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer associate professor of biology at Penn State and one of the team's leaders, explained that climate changes affecting the North Atlantic ice sheet probably gave rise to periodic overlaps in bear habitats. These overlaps then led to hybridization, or interbreeding -- an event that caused maternal DNA from brown bears to be introduced into polar bears. The research, which is led by Penn State's Shapiro and Daniel Bradley of Trinity College Dublin, is expected to help guide future conservation efforts for polar bears, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The results of the study were published on July 7 in the journal Current Biology. Polar and brown bears are vastly different species in terms of body size ... and many other physical features. Behaviorally, they are also quite distinct.... "Despite these differences, we know that the two species have interbred ... during the last 100,000 years," Shapiro said. "Most importantly, previous research has indicated that the brown bear contributed genetic material to the polar bear's mitochondrial lineage -- the maternal part of the genome, or the DNA that is passed exclusively from mothers to offspring. But, until now, it was unclear just when modern polar bears acquired their mitochondrial genome in its present form." Although previous researchers had suggested that the ancient female ancestor of modern polar bears lived on the ABC Islands -- the Alaskan islands of Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof -- only 14,000 years ago, Shapiro's team found evidence of a much earlier hybridization event. Because of this event, the modern polar bear's mitochondrial DNA probably underwent fixation -- a drastic reduction in genetic variation and a transition to a state in which the entire gene pool includes only one form of a particular gene. After performing genetic analyses of 242 brown-bear and polar-bear mitochondrial lineages sampled throughout the last 120,000 years and across multiple geographic ranges, Shapiro's team found that the fixation of the mitochondrial genome likely occurred during or just before the peak of the last ice age, possibly as early as 50,000 years ago, near present-day Ireland. Shapiro noted that the specific population of brown bears that shared its maternal DNA with polar bears has been extinct for roughly 9,000 years. However, her data offer clear genetic evidence that the two species were in contact long before the brown bear's disappearance from the British Isles.

CamBay group circulates petition to keep Maud in Nunavut

Amanda Graham — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:49:38 GMT

(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News, 15 July 2011) -- A group of Cambridge Bay residents, who have rallied to keep the Maud in their community, are circulating a petition that asks the federal government to keep the sunken hulk, once sailed by the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, in Nunavut. Wealthy Norwegian investors want to bring the Maud back to Norway and then build a futuristic museum around it. The Cambridge Bay group’s members, who started meeting last month, want to keep Amundsen’s Maud — also called the Baymaud — in Cambridge Bay. Their petition, “Keep the Baymaud in Canada,” posted online asks “the Government of Canada to keep the Baymaud in Canada by denying all requests for export permits.” “I really think this is an important cause, and I’d like to encourage you to add your signature. It’s free and takes just a few seconds of your time. No need to register or give a password or anything time consuming. All you need to do is provide your name and email address and then click sign,” said Baymaud spokesperson Vicki Aitaok.

Canoe found in Southeast may be 500 years old

Amanda Graham — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:51:29 GMT

(Mike Dunham/Anchorage Daily News, 13 July 2011) -- A centuries-old Haida canoe has been discovered near the Prince of Wales Island village of Kasaan, Sealaska Corp., announced Tuesday. Work on the nearly 34-foot vessel may have stopped around the same time that Columbus sailed from Spain. A surveyor with Sealaska's subsidiary, the Sealaska Timber Corporation, spotted the canoe under a heavy layer of moss while working on forested land owned by the Alaska Native regional corporation last winter. "(Engineers and field personnel) are instructed to immediately secure the area" when they recognize potential historical objects, Sealaska Executive Vice President Rick Harris said in a written statement. "(To) stop any activities that may negatively affect the cultural resource, and contact Sealaska Heritage Institute, which oversees these matters." Steps were quickly taken to protect the area until a full investigation could take place. Following the spring snowmelt, Sealaska leaders and tribal members from Kasaan visited the site. Daniel Monteith, an anthropology professor at the University of Alaska Southeast helped with the inspection. Of particular importance was the fact that the work on the canoe appeared to have been done with pre-contact hand tools. "Other abandoned canoes have been found in Southeast Alaska, but it is rare to find canoes crafted with traditional tools," said Dr. Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute. The present-day village of Kasaan was founded in 1900, at which time tribal members had access to modern, metal tools. The visitors also noted that at least five cedars in the vicinity had been harvested using traditional tools. Equally important was the age of the cedar forest that had grown up around the canoe site after it was abandoned. Wade Zammit, President and CEO of Sealaska Timber Corp., put the age of that growth at around 500 years.

Abrupt climate change doomed Norse settlements: study

Amanda Graham — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:13:48 GMT

(Randy Boswell/Postmedia News via Montreal Gazette, 24 June 2011) -- New scientific evidence supporting a long-standing theory that abrupt climate change probably doomed Greenland's Norse settlements about 650 years ago may also explain why most Canadians today are not speaking Danish and celebrating their Viking ancestry. The study by a group of researchers from Denmark, Germany and Norway used samples of marine sediment from Greenland's west coast to reconstruct a picture of the giant island's climate over the past 1,500 years. Their findings showed that when Scandinavian settlers led by Eric the Red first established colonies on Greenland in 985, the west coast around present-day Disko Bay — located just 400 kilometres east of Baffin Island across the Davis Strait — was relatively warm and conducive to the farming life the settlers favoured.

Surprise archeological find from Iceland’s settlement

Amanda Graham — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:54:46 GMT

Archeological remains that were found during an excavation in Urridakot in Gardabaer, a neighboring town of Reykjavík, were much older than archeologists had assumed. They date back to the settlement of Iceland in the 9th century AD while Urridakot is first mentioned in written sources from the 16th century. Excavation has been ongoing in Urridakot in the past years because of planned construction in the area. In 2006 the local authorities asked the Institute of Archaeology to fully complete the registration of archeological remains within the town limits, Fréttabladid reports. “The first test dig was made in Urridakot in 2007 and last year the excavation was to be completed at which point I decided to dig in the area between those that had been tested,” said archeologist Ragnheidur Traustadóttir. “Nothing could be seen on the surface and there are no sources on anything in the area but then we discovered a magnificent cowshed from the Settlement Era,” she described, adding that they also found a lodge, storage room, pantry and a cooking hole from the 9th to 11th century; further research is required to determine how old the remains are exactly. Click here to read more about archeological discoveries in Iceland.

Exhibit relives the Canadian Arctic Expedition

Amanda Graham — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:46:40 GMT

(Susan Hallett, 26 April 2011) -- OTTAWA - Explorer-biologist historian Dr. David R. Gray, fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America, guest-curated what is a truly fascinating exhibition exploring the Canadian Arctic. A joint project produced by the Canadian Museum of Civilization in collaboration with the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, “Expedition: Arctic” is currently on view in Gallery E at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1918, inspired and led by Manitoba-born explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, was made up of two parties. The Northern Party searched for and found previously unidentified Arctic Islands. The explorers carried the Canadian flag into the then unexplored northwestern High Arctic. The Southern party, led by Dr. R.M. Anderson, conducted scientific research along the Canadian Arctic mainland coast. I learned that the Expedition’s bleakest times started in January 1914 when they lost their flagship Karluk. It was trapped and crushed by ice, then sank off the Siberian coast. All survived the sinking but many died on the journey to land and during the long wait for rescuers who arrived the following autumn. Remember, there were no phones or computers. In a talk, Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, said that “one of the world’s last great journeys of discovery” took place “under the flag of Canada.” He told us that the expedition “redrew the map of northern Canada, and became a source of Canadian claims to sovereignty over lands identified but not really known.” ... The exhibit is not only scholarly and informative—it is fun! Visitors enter and take a postcard with the name of one of the explorers. From then on, you follow in his shoes, or mukluks, to see if there is a place named after him, if he travelled on the Karluk, and what his role was. I was Aarnout Castel and yes, there is a place named after him. Go to http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/home for a list of “Expedition: Arctic” related events and to find out where the exhibit will travel after it closes on April 15, 2012.

Debate over saving historic buildings

Amanda Graham — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:50:58 GMT

(Sveriges Radio, 19 April 2011) -- Plans continue for the moving and rebuilding the northern Swedish mining community of Kiruna — since the vast network of tunnels under the streets have made life there shaky — and there are plans to dig even more mine shafts in the search for that valuable iron ore. But hopes of local politicians and the mining company leaders to rip down instead of to move old historic buildings have sparked some high-level protests. A highly unusual and costly measure to be sure to move and rebuild a whole town — and local politicians and the state owned LKAB mining company making profits for the last 120 years are counting the kronor. Both have jointly appealed to the government to remove the cultural stamp of preservation for the town’s historic buildings – arguing that it would be cheaper to build brand new. But some leaders of Swedish organizations defending the historic buildings have appealed in the prestigious Stockholm newspaper Svenska Dagbladet to save the structures: the city hall with its high rectangular clock tower – not just a home base for politicians but a gathering place for the whole community, the central train station – the hub of tracks bringing in the workers and settlers to this once sparsely populated region and removing the iron ore to ports and factories around the world; a beautiful and pomp-filled settlement of 1895 – once the home of the company boss – and now a museum and conference center. Kerstin Westerlund Bjurström is the chairperson of the Swedish section of the international council on monuments and sites – explaining why she co-signed the appeal. in Kiruna, the town’s head architect Tomas Nylund is diplomatic in his position balancing between the will of his bosses the politicians and those wanting to save the historic past.

Alaska Natives gain tourism foothold off beaten path

Amanda Graham — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:21:30 GMT

(Rachel d'Oro/Anchorage Daily News, 3 April 2011) -- Alaska Natives have established a solid foundation in the state's tourism industry, captivating visitors with their dances and songs, their art and a history as varied as the tribes themselves. Much of the cultural boom is found at cruise ship ports, Alaska's large cities and points along the state's minimal road system. But travel experts say independent travelers are increasingly venturing to isolated villages to experience life with descendants of the continent's first inhabitants on their ancient grounds, a trend that could be confirmed by a summer visitor survey planned by the Alaska Travel Industry Association. Whatever the venue, Alaska Natives represent an "authentic experience" for many travelers, said association president Ron Peck. "Yes, they come to see the beauty that is Alaska," he said. "But the truth of the matter is, as they come here, they want to be more experiential. They want to learn about these cultures."

Greenland’s mine school: quality learning, in English

Amanda Graham — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:47:38 GMT

(Jim Bell/Nunatsiaq News, 4 April 2011) -- SISIMIUT, GREENLAND - For Hans Henrichsen, manager of the Greenland School of Minerals and Petroleum in Sisimiut, there’s only one standard worth reaching for: best of class. “We are taking the best of the best in Greenland. Our goal is to prove that Greenland miners are as good as any around the world,” Henrichsen said March 31 to a group of visitors from Nunavut. Agnico-Eagles Mines Ltd. flew the group to Greenland following a two-day tour of the company’s gold mine in Kittilä, Finland, where the Nunavut visitors met numerous highly educated Finns who have landed good jobs in mining. On the Greenland leg of the tour, the group learned how an Inuit jurisdiction has figured out a way to deliver that education. Henrichsen said the Greenland government decided in 2007 to build a new mining school in Sisimiut to meet a big national goal: training at least 1,500 Greenlanders for the mining industry. That’s because Greenland expects seven to eight new mines will emerge there within the next decade, producing lead, zinc, diamonds, iron, gold, molybdenum and rare earths. In 2008, the school began accepting students. Since then, 123 of 128 people who signed up for training programs have completed their courses, Henrichsen said.

Charity shop given mammoth's teeth

Amanda Graham — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 05:16:32 GMT

(Radio Sweden, 2 April 2011) -- A red cross charity shop in Umeå in northern Sweden has received an unlikely donation. Instead of a coat, table lamp or other everyday item, volunteers at the shop were given two sets of teeth from a prehistoric mammoth. The teeth were in possession of a resident at an elderly residents home who had passed away. Anna Marja Hagner at the Red Cross shop told Swedish Radio in Västerbotten that the teeth have to be checked out by the Swedish Board of Agriculture and if they were not of any monetary value then at least "they can be shown off in our shop." They received the gift on April 1st and thought at first that it was an April Fool's joke.

New walls for old fortress

Amanda Graham — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:43:27 GMT

(Barents Observer, 22 February 2011) -- The Northernmost fortress in the world, Vardøhus Fortress, will get much-needed repairs. The walls around Vardøhus Fortress in Norway’s easternmost town of Vardø are in bad shape and are about to fall out. The Ministry of Defense has now decided to allocate NOK 6 million to rebuild the walls, Finnmarken reports. The parts of the wall that are in bad shape will be taken to pieces and rebuilt, using the same rocks. The work will take place in April-October 2011. "It is important to preserve our historical monuments for the coming generations," says Minister of defense Grete Faremo. "Our fortresses are an expression of our national identity." Vardøhus Fortress is located in Norway’s easternmost town, Vardø. The first fortification here was built around 1300, when Norway was in conflict with the Russian Republic of Novgorod. The current star shaped fortress was erected in 1738.

The Greely Expedition (PBS Watch Online)

Amanda Graham — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:50:32 GMT

(PBS via Northern Waterways, 7 February 2011) -- In 1881, 25 men led by American Adolphus Greely set sail from Newfoundland to Lady Franklin Bay in the high Arctic on the east coast of Ellesmere Island, where they intended to collect a wealth of scientific data from a vast area of the world’s surface that had been described as a "sheer blank." Their expedition was an American contribution to the "International Polar Expedition" that later became known as the International Polar Year. Three years later, only six survivors returned, with a daunting story of shipwreck, starvation, mutiny and cannibalism. The film [52:11] reveals how poor planning, personality clashes, questionable decisions and pure bad luck conspired to turn a noble scientific mission into a human tragedy. The web site has many additional high-quality resources for deeper study into the Lady Franklin Bay Greely Expedition.

Nunavut heritage sites face climate threat

Amanda Graham — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 06:16:46 GMT

(CBC News, 28 January 2011) -- Nunavut archaeological sites threatened by climate change may be saved thanks to new high-tech equipment, says the territory's director of culture and heritage. Doug Stenton said new 3D technology and a ground-penetrating radar system can be used to quickly map the surface and sub-surface, and could be used to deal with sites affected by coastal erosion and melting permafrost. The University of Manitoba has received funding to buy the technology and plans to use it in the Arctic. "It will help us identify areas that need special attention...and help us plan strategies to protect the site, [such as] stabilization methods," Stenton said. He added that there are about 12,000 documented sites in Nunavut, dating back as many as 4,500 years. Discoveries can include stone tools, clothing, bone and stone carvings, and masks. As an example of a threatened site, Stenton pointed to photos of a site containing artifacts from the Tuniit or Dorset people, who predate the Inuit. A large section of the site near Pond Inlet, Nunavut, has washed into the ocean.

Creator of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge honored

Amanda Graham — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:47:19 GMT

(Estes Park Trail-Gazette, 25 January 2011)** -- Estes Park resident Dr. Robert Krear was one of the speakers for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Dr. Krear was invited to the headquarters of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service near Washington, D.C., the week of Jan. 17-21 to speak at the anniversary ceremony. In Washington, he was reunited with Dr. George Schaller. Along with Krear, they are the only surviving members of the famous Murie Arctic expedition. The two were among the featured speakers at this symposium involving numerous Alaskan biologists, refuge managers and other members of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Among the other speakers was former president Jimmy Carter. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the largest wildlife refuge in the United States. It is an area of great natural beauty that has been called the Serengeti of North America because of the wildlife populations that exist there. Dr. Krear considers his participation in the creation of the Arctic refuge the greatest contribution of his life. It all began in 1956, when Dr. Krear, a local retired biology professor and scientist, received a phone call from Dr. Olaus Murie of Jackson Hole, Wyo., who invited him to join Murie`s expedition to the northeast corner of Arctic Alaska for the purpose of assisting in ecological studies during exploration of that primitive area. It had been determined by the nation`s top environmentalists following World War II that that area of Alaska was the last pristine Arctic wilderness area remaining on the entire planet. There was an urgent necessity to preserve it from commercialization.