Hein B. Bjerck, Professor in Archaeology at Norwegian University of Science and Technology will be giving a lecture “The Colonization of Scandinavian Seascapes in the Pleistocene/Holocene Transition”.
An exciting and important subject for study here on the Northwest Coast is how and when the “first” people arrived, particularly at the end of the last Ice Age. In order to understand this, it is necessary to understand the local sea-level histories and paleo-environments. As Quentin Mackie wrote on his blog, Dr. Bjerck is in BC at the invitation of Daryl Fedje and Duncan McLaren, whose projects are funded by the Tula Foundation. The thrust of their research, at Quadra Island and the Central Coast respectively, is aimed at this question.
Amongst other things, Dr. Bjerck is the Project Leader of “Marine Ventures – Comparative perspectives on the dynamics of early human approaches to the seascapes of Tierra del Fuego and Norway”.
Norway, Tierra del Fuego, and coastal BC share similar or parallel landscapes, climates, and ecologies, so, in addition to their importance in Scandinavia, his studies inform the study of archaeology and early cultures here.
Dr. Bjerck is a Professor of Archaeology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.