The Arctic is a land of unrelenting mystery.
Legends are created by lonely adventurers and our collective imagery
abounds with accounts of vast
forbidding landscapes. The elements there bring our species
to the very edge of survival and only human culture has allowed it to
carry on.
Today we know much more about this
polar land than any of the great
discoverers of the past could ever have dreamed. While this knowledge
of the Arctic dispells some of the mystery of the land, it also
gives us powerful tools to understand the human adventure that
has been played out here for thousands of years.
To the people who have always inhabited the northern reaches of North
America, the land was and is the source of life, not some cold and dark,
wind-swept place filled with unknowns. It is the place from which to draw
sustenance and warmth.
Many of the perceptions non-Northerners hold about the Arctic are based
on a dearth of facts or a stubborn adherence to stereotypes and myths.
In order to better understand and appreciate the archaeological discoveries
which were made during the course of the Northern Oil and Gas Action Plan's
Archaeology Project, we offer some thumbnail sketches of the land, its
history and its resources. While these are not intended to answer all of
the questions a person may ask, a better familiarity with the environment is
an essential point of departure for any expedition.
Because of the great diversity of the NOGAP research areas, the features of
the Land have been described within the following broadly-defined regions: