NORSEC Activities: Cooperative Research at Hunter Bioarchaeology Laboratory, Hard Tissue Research Unit (HTRU), and Analytical Microscopy and Imaging Center in Anthropology (AMICA).

  For the past five years, there has been growing productive cooperation between the Hunter Bioarchaeology Laboratory and the HTRU and AMICA centers of the Biological Anthropology program. We have been cooperating across sub-disciplinary boundaries for some time, sharing unique archaeological samples, cutting edge technology, and world class expertise. The cooperation has produced several studies relating changes in animal bones excavated from archaeological sites in the north to changes in sea ice and ocean current circulation. We intend to expand this collaboration to include the newly formed Brooklyn College Zooarchaeology Laboratory now being set up by Dr. Perdikaris. The AMICA and HTRU facilities are the product of major NSF and NASA grants to Dr. Tim Bromage, and the Bioarchaeology Laboratory has been recognized as one of the most important zooarchaeology laboratories in the northeast. Several major grant applications are now under preparation, and we expect to continue to involve students in all levels of the ongoing research. Grants have been submitted to fund student research into incremental structures in seals and fish 2000-2003, and an active collaboration with Icelandic colleagues on excavated human remains from Iceland is being set up.

  Summer sea ice off the coast of Greenland was never seen by the Viking-age colonizers of the 9th-10th c, but became common after ca AD1275-1300 as climate cooled. Changes in North Atlantic climate and sea ice distribution are recognized as key elements in anticipated global climate change over the next century. Seal and fish bones from archaeological sites contain unique records of past North Atlantic conditions, and these can be extracted through advanced imaging technology.