WP3 – Habitat from prehistoric times to modern

Leads: Émilie Gauthier and Patrick Evans

WP3 focuses on past and present human settlements. It will explore the impact of climate change on the culture transitions and address how regional climate has played a role on Paleo-Eskimo, Norse and Inuit settlement. Special attention will be paid on contemporary and traditional human settlements and their complex relationship to the seasonal and rapidly changing northern environment in a context climate change. The methodology and research goals are multiple given the wide geographic and cultural spectra of our research program. Nevertheless, we are committed to developing impactful and deliverable projects rooted in the concerns and ongoing strategic planning of communities and territorial stakeholders working on issues related to the built environment that includes architecture, transportation design, interior design, village infrastructure and northern urbanism.

Main tasks

Exploration of responses of Paleo-Eskimo and Inuit peoples to climate change in Nunavik and Labrador, knowing that there are not enough Paleo-Eskimo archaeological sites in southern Greenland to explore this issue.

Comparison of adaptation responses to climate change of the Norse in Greenland and Iceland.

Case study approaches concentrating on traditional northern objects. In addition to documenting the overall design and specific regional (environmental) characteristics, we will seek to explain how certain traditional objects have disappeared or have been adapted within contemporary Inuit or other circumpolar cultures.