Archaeologist to Discuss 300-Year-Old Scottish Coastal Disaster Feb. 10

Story posted February 03, 2010

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Archaeologist Gerald F. Bigelow will speak about his research on Scotland's Shetland Islands in an illustrated talk at 7 p.m. on Wednesday February 10, 2010, in the Beam Classroom, Visual Arts Center.

A little over 300 years ago a small, coastal township in the Shetland Islands, Scotland's northernmost county, was buried in windblown sand and never resettled. Led by Dr. Bigelow, an international team of archaeologists, historians, and environmental scientists is investigating this catastrophe, trying to explain its causes and consequences.

In his talk, "Climate Change, Extreme Weather, and Coastal Disasters: A Case Study from Northernmost Scotland in the Little Ice Age," Bigelow will speak about his team's efforts to understand how climate change affected Shetland Island communities. He will discuss the possible interactions of climate change, extreme weather events, and farming practices that doomed a prosperous coastal community on Europe's northernmost margins and what we can learn from their history.

Bigelow's presentation is part of the "Catastrophe and Adaptation" lecture series that is bringing archaeologists who study cultures' past responses to climate change to campus. The series is organized by the Arctic Studies Program and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and is funded with assistance from the Mellon Foundation.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center at 725-3416.

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