Dr Jon Erlandson, University of Oregon Museum of Cultural and Natural History

Vikings in Iceland: Sagas, Settlements, and Science in the Mosfell Valley

October 14 at 7 pm in UA Museum Auditorium, UAF

Beginning about AD 870, Norse (Viking and Celtic) settlers colonized the remote North Atlantic island of Iceland. In this public lecture, archaeologist Jon Erlandson will describe the results of eight years of research at a Norse farmstead mentioned repeatedly in the Icelandic Sagas. At Hrisbru, an interdisciplinary and international team excavated a well-preserved Viking longhouse, an early Christian church, and a ship-shaped mound containing a cremation feature. Erlandson will explore the relationships between history, literature, archaeology, and science--as revealed in the landscapes of Viking Age Iceland.

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Peopling the Americas: A Pacific Rim Perspective

October 15, at 3:30 pm in 304 Eielson Building, UAF

After more than a century of research, one might expect that we would know how, when, and from where the Americas were first settled. Instead, the traditional and terrestrial view of a migration through the "ice-free corridor"--which dominated 20th century thought--has been replaced with multiple working hypotheses. Archaeologist Jon Erlandson describes 30 years of research along the Pacific Coast of North America, discussing the evidence that a coastal migration of Upper Paleolithic peoples from Northeast Asia into the Americas contributed to the initial colonization of the American continents.