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Polar Expeditions (South) in Archaeology

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

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Introduction

The extreme isolation, hostile environment, and the lack of human native population were factors that contributed to the understanding of Antarctica as a distant, inaccessible space empty of people and things. However, since its discovery in the early nineteenth century, expeditions were sent from different continents aimed at geographical exploration as well as commercial exploitation of its maritime resources. Archaeological sites on the continent and its surrounding islands are relatively recent and widely scattered and often relate to a single purpose use at a single point in time. They represent the remains of the limited range of human activities developed in Antarctica such as exploration, sealing, whaling, and scientific research. The conservation of historic sites, such as building, shipwrecks, and artifacts of the polar expeditions were a matter of concern since the signature of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959. Archaeology began in the late 1970s with a focus on the...

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CONICET- INAPL and Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Maria Ximena Senatore

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  1. Maria Ximena Senatore
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Correspondence to Maria Ximena Senatore .

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  1. Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano-CONICET / Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, CABA, Argentina

    Vivian Scheinsohn

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Senatore, M.X. (2018). Polar Expeditions (South) in Archaeology. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2873-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2873-1

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