Skip to main content

Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea: Maritime Archaeology

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Physical Geography, Oceanography, and Climate

The Arctic Ocean is a unique place, with no analogue elsewhere on the planet. The world’s largest confined ocean, its permanent sea-ice cover, creates a hostile and difficult environment for human research and occupation but is a crucial component of global climate and the ecology of the world ocean. The region’s oceanographic characteristics, climate regime, and human adaptations are not matched by any other, and these factors have been emphasized in recent years as indicators of global warming bring dramatic changes to the Arctic.

Oceanographers consider the Arctic Ocean and its bordering seas to be the body of water surrounding the North Pole and bordered by Europe, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, occupying an area of approximately 14 million km2 (Fig. 1). Major island groups are found off the European and Siberian coasts (Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands) and throughout...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Blankholm, H.P. 2009. Long-term research and cultural resource management strategies in light of climate change and human impact. Arctic Anthropology 46 (1–2): 17–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bockstoce, J.R. 1986. Whales, ice, & men: The history of whaling in the Western Arctic. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delgado, J.P. 1997. Made for the ice: A report on the wreck of the Hudson’s bay company ship Baymaud, ex-Polarskibet Maud. Vancouver: Vancouver Maritime Museum and Underwater Archaeology Society of British Columbia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delgado, J.P. 1999. Across the top of the world: The quest for the northwest passage. New York: Checkmark Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, E.J. 1999. Bones boats & bison: Archaeology and the first colonization of western North America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzhugh, W.W., and E.I. Ward, eds. 2000. Vikings: The North Atlantic saga. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gulløv, H.C. 1997. From middle ages to colonial times: Archaeological and ethnohistorical studies of the Thule culture in south west Greenland 1300–1800 AD. Meddeleser om Grønland, man and society 23. Copenhagen: National Museum of Denmark.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacquebord, L. 1995. In search of het behouden huys: A survey of the remains of the house of Willem Barentsz on Novaya Zemlya. Arctic 48 (3): 248–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacquebord, L., and D. Avango. 2009. Settlements in an Arctic resource frontier region. Arctic Anthropology 46 (1–2): 25–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadleigh West, F., ed. 1996. American beginnings: The prehistory and paleoecology of Beringia. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffecker, J. 2005. A prehistory of the north, human settlement of the higher latitudes. New Brunswick/London: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maschner, H., O. Mason, and R. Mcghee, eds. 2009. The northern world, AD 900–1400. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mcghee, R. 2001. The Arctic voyages of Martin Frobisher: An Elizabethan adventure. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mineral Management Service (MMS). 2007. Alaska continental shelf Chukchi Sea planning area. Oil and gas lease sale 193 and seismic surveying activities in the Chukchi Sea. Final environmental impact statement: 1–3. Anchorage: Minerals Management Service, Alaska OCS Region.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nuttall, M., and T.V. Callaghan, eds. 2000. The Arctic: Environment, people, policy. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petersen, H.C. 1986. Skinboats of Greenland. Roskilde: The Viking Ship Museum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stroeve, J.C., M.C. Serreze, M.M. Holland, J.E. Kay, J. Malanik, and A.P. Barrett. 2012. The Arctic’s rapidly shrinking sea ice cover: A research synthesis. Climate Change 110: 1005–1027.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wadhams, P. 2000. Ice in the ocean. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerdahl, C., ed. 2010. A circumpolar reappraisal: The legacy of Gutorm Gjessing (1906–1979), BAR international series. Vol. 2154. Oxford: Archaeopress.

    Google Scholar 

Further Readings

  • Anisimov, O., D.G. Vaughan, T.V. Callaghan, C. Furgal, H. Marchant, T.D. Prowse, H. Vilhjalmsson, and J.E. Walsh. 2007. Polar regions (Arctic and Antarctic). In Climate change 2007: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, ed. M.L. Parry, O.F. Cranziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. Van Der Linden, and C.E. Hanson, 653–685. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, P.W., D.M. Rearic, and E. Reimnitz. 1984. Ice gouging characteristics and processes. In The Alaskan Beaufort Sea: Ecosystems and environments, ed. P.W. Barnes, D.M. Schell, and E. Reimnitz, 185–212. Orlando: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Barr, W. 2007. Discovery of the wreck of the soviet steamer Chelyuskin on the bed of the Chukchi Sea. Polar Record 43: 67–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barry, R.G. 1989. The present climate of the Arctic Ocean and possible past and future states. In The Arctic seas: Climatology, oceanography, geology, and biology, ed. Y. Herman, 1–46. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blankholm, H.P. 2004. Earliest Mesolithic site in northern Norway? A reassessment of Sarnes B4. Arctic Anthropology 41 (1): 41–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnichsen, R., B.T. Lepper, D. Stanford, and M.R. Waters, eds. 2005. Paleoamerican origins: Beyond clovis. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brigham-Grette, J., A.V. Lozhkin, P.M. Anderson, and O.Y. Glushkova. 2004. Paleoenvironmental conditions in western Beringia before and during the last glacial maximum. In Entering America: Northeast Asia and Beringia before the last glacial maximum, ed. D.B. Madsen, 29–61. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bronshtein, M. 2007. World of Arctic maritime hunters: Steps into the unknown. Exhibition catalogue. Moscow/Anadyr: State Museum of Oriental Art.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coachman, L.K., and K. Aagaard. 1974. Physical oceanography of the Arctic and subarctic seas. In Marine geology and oceanography of the Arctic seas, ed. Y. Herman, 1–72. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coachman, L.K., K. Aagaard, and R.B. Tripp. 1975. Bering strait: The regional physical oceanography. Seattle/London: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, H. 1937. Archaeology of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Washington: Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 96(1).

    Google Scholar 

  • Comiso, J.C., C.L. Parkinson, R. Gersten, and L. Stock. 2008. Accelerated decline in the Arctic Sea ice cover. Geophysical Research Letters 35. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL031972.

  • Cooke, A., ed. 1984. Sikumiut: “The people who use sea ice”. Ottawa: Canadian Arctic Resources Committee.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, E.J. 2011. Late pleistocene colonization of North America from Northeast Asia: New insights from large-scale paleogeographic reconstructions. Quaternary International 2011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.02.027.

  • Eicken, H., L.H. Shapiro, A.G. Gaylord, A. Mahoney, and P.W. Cotter. 2006. Mapping and characterization of recurring spring leads and Landfast ice in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Anchorage/Fairbanks: MMS Alaska Environmental Studies Program; University of Alaska Geophysical Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzhugh, W.W., ed. 1975. Prehistoric maritime adaptations of the circumpolar zone. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzhugh, W.W., and J.S. OLIN, eds. 1993. Archeology of the Frobisher voyages. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fladmark, K. 1979. Routes: Alternative migration corridors for early man in North America. American Antiquity 44: 55–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford, J. 1959. Eskimo prehistory in the vicinity of point barrow, Alaska. New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grønnow, B. 1994. Qeqertasussuk – The archaeology of a frozen Saqqaq site in Disko Bugt, West Greenland. In Threads of Arctic prehistory: Papers in honor of William E. Taylor, Jr, Archaeological survey of Canada, mercury series, ed. D. Morrison and J.-L. Pilon, vol. 149, 197–238. Hull/Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Herman, Y., ed. 1989. The Arctic seas: Climatology, oceanography, geology, and biology. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, J.C., and N.W. Driscoll. 2008. Paleodrainage on the Chukchi shelf reveals sea level history and meltwater discharge. Marine Geology 254: 129–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hood, B. 2006. Towards an archaeology of the nain regin, labrador. Contributions to circumpolar anthropology 7, Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hood, D.W., and E.J. Kelly. 1972. Introduction. In Oceanography of the Bering Sea, ed. D.W. Hood and E.J. Kelly, xv–xxi. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Institute of Marine Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, D.M. 1967. The Bering land bridge. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, D.M., J.V. Matthews Jr., C.E. Schweger, and S.B. Young, eds. 1982. Paleoecology of Beringia. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hultén, E. 1937. Outline of the history of Arctic and boreal biota during the quaternary period. Stockholm: Borforlag Aktiebolaget Thule.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jablonski, N., ed. 2002. The first Americans: The Pleistocene colonization of the New World, Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences number. Vol. 27. San Francisco: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jakobsson, M., J.V. Gardner, P.R. Vogt, L.A. Mayer, A. Armstrong, J. Backman, R. Brennan, B. Calder, J.K. Hall, and B. Kraft. 2005. Multibeam bathymetric and sediment profiler evidence for ice grounding on the Chukchi borderland, Arctic Ocean. Quaternary Research 63: 150–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knuth, E. 1952. The Danish expedition to Peary Land, 1947-49. The Geographical Journal 118 (1): 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kozlowski, J., and H. Bandi. 1984. The Paleohistory of circumpolar Arctic colonization. Arctic 37 (4): 358–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krupnik, I., C. Aporta, S. Gearheard, G.L. Laidler, and L.K. Holm, eds. 2010. SIKU: Knowing our ice – Documenting inuit Sea-ice knowledge and use. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Len’kov, V.D., G.L. Silant’ev, and A.K. Staniukovich. 1992. The komandorskii camp of the bering expedition. Trans. K. Arndt, ed. O. Frost. Anchorage: Alaska Historical Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macinnis, J.B. 1985. The land the devours ships: The search for the Breadalbane. Toronto: CBC Enterprises.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madsen, D.B., ed. 2004. Entering America: Northeast Asia and Beringia before the last glacial maximum. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathiassen, T. 1927. The Thule culture and its position within the Eskimo culture. Copenhagen: Gydendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mcghee, R. 2009. When and why did the Inuit move to the eastern Arctic? In The northern world, AD 900–1400, ed. H. Maschner, O. Mason, and R. Mcghee, 155–163. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mcmanus, D.A., J.S. Creager, R.J. Echols, and M.L. Holmes. 1983. The Holocene transgression on the Arctic flank of Beringia: Chukchi Valley to Chukchi estuary to Chukchi Sea. In Quaternary coastlines and marine archaeology, ed. P. Masters and M. Flemming, 365–388. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, J.E., and C. Gnecco, eds. 2006. Paleoindian archaeology: A hemispheric perspective. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, W.H., and F. Barnett. 1955. A burial cave on Kanaga Island, Aleutian Islands. American Antiquity 20 (4): 387–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, J.S. 2009. The Eliza Anderson: An early Puget Sound steamer shipwrecked in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The sea chest. Journal of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society 43 (2): 51–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savours, A. 1999. The search for the north west passage. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stroeve, J.C., M.M. Holland, W. Meier, T. Scambos, and M.C. Serreze. 2007. Arctic Sea ice decline: Faster than forecast. Geophysical Research Letters 34. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL29703.

  • Veer, G.D. 1964 (reprint of 1876). The three voyages of William Barentsz to the Arctic regions. New York: Burt Franklin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerdahl, C. 1992. The maritime cultural landscape. International Journal of Nautical and Maritime Archaeology 21: 5–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jason Rogers .

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Rogers, J., Anichtchenko, E. (2018). Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea: Maritime Archaeology. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_594-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_594-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference HistoryReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics