International Circumpolar Archaeology Project

The International Circumpolar Archaeology Project (ICAP), directed by Prof. Ezra Zubrow is a multidisciplinary collaborative research project that aims to provide information about how prehistoric groups created resilient adaptive systems in response to climatic and environmental challenges while developing historically unique sets of life-ways.

1)  To identify the climatic and environmental changes experienced by the prehistoric inhabitants of the study area on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, and

2)  To determine the nature of the resultant social change. By gathering data on geological, climatic/ecological, and anthropogenic impacts on the environment, the project is assessing the development of human responses to it.

The Buffalo team, along with their colleagues at the Northeastern University of Magadan (Russia), the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Russian Academy of Sceinces), and the University of Washington are currently carrying out geological and archaeological surveys throughout the project area. These surveys are aimed at establishing a geological history of the area in order to identify the events and processes that have impacted the environment, and at determining the nature of human responses through the identification and excavation of archaeological sites.

Some Key features of the site:

• For videos and a photo gallery of Kamchatka visit the Media Page.
• Interactive Map of Kamchatka

Visitors: the site is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox.