Beyond the Historian’s Traditional Toolbox: What Archeology, Lidar, and Chemical Residues can Teach us about the Year 1000

The traditional focus of historians on written documents often results in greater attention to literate societies, but scientific breakthroughs in recent years have underpinned multiple discoveries about societies with little or no documentation. Some of the most exciting discoveries concern the voyages of the Malayo-Polynesians from the Malay peninsula to Madagascar, Hawaii, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), and New Zealand, the extent of Angkor Wat, and the opening of overland routes across the Americas. This talk will introduce some of the new technologies discussed in Hansen’s book, The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began (April 2020, Scribner).
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Poster