The Role of Magnetometry in Managing Arctic Archaeological Sites in the Face of Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change is impacting archaeological sites around the globe, and Arctic sites are among the most vulnerable because the region is experiencing particularly rapid change. In the face of this threat, archaeologists, heritage managers, and northern communities need to develop strategies for documenting and monitoring Arctic sites and prioritizing them for further investigation. Using three case studies from Banks Island in the western Canadian Arctic, we demonstrate how magnetometer survey could assist in this process, despite the region's poorly developed soils, widespread glacial tills, and periglacial geomorphology, which pose challenges for the technique. The case studies illustrate the utility of magnetometry in mapping both archaeological and permafrost features in the Arctic, allowing it to rapidly investigate site structure and assess the level of threat due to climate change.

Conceptual Model of Permafrost Degradation in an Inuit Archaeological Context (Dog Island, Labrador): A Geophysical Approach

“…Hubbard et al [15] used a combination of LiDAR, ERT, GPR, and EMI to successfully determine subsurface hydrogeochemical/thermal zonation in relation to the surface microtopography of a coastal plain in Alaska. Geophysical methods have also been used to study northern archaeological sites, focusing on the detection of archaeological structures, artifacts, and ecofacts [19][20][21][22][23]. Although these studies highlight the impact of permafrost thaw on artifact preservation, they were not primarily aimed at characterizing the permafrost underlying archaeological sites.…”