SGER: International Collaboration in the Industrial Archaeology of the Arctic

Michigan Technological University, Houghton MI

Investigators

Abstract

A team of faculty and students from Michigan Technological University's Industrial Archaeology Program will make a ten-day visit to the archipelago of Svalbard in August 2004. In coordination with students and scientists from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, and similar teams from Russia, Holland, Great Britain, and Norway, we will undertake a research and training exercise focused on the remains of early twentieth century coal mining operations in the Icefjord region. This initial effort will serve as a pilot project for future collaborative undertakings in the emerging discipline of industrial archaeology, and will be particularly crucial in expanding the scope of this field into the industrial heritage of the Arctic.