Long Ago Yukon’s 2020-2021 Speaker Series will welcome its fourth speaker at 1 p.m. Saturday – Dr. Todd Kristensen.

He can be accessed via a live link on the Long Ago Yukon’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LongAgoYukon/

The title of his talk is “Volcanoes and Archaeology: Human Responses to a Thousand Year Old Eruption in Northern Canada”.

Explosive volcanic eruptions almost 1,200 years ago blanketed southern Yukon and the southwest N.W.T. in ash.

Believed to have originated from the Mount Churchill stratovolcano in the St. Elias Range of Alaska west southwest of Beaver Creek, the ash fall covered more than 340,000 km2 and dramatically altered some landscapes for flora, fauna and Indigenous peoples.

Stone tools and ancient ecology reveal how social relationships helped people adapt to natural disasters.

Kristensen works with the Archaeological Survey of Alberta as a regional archaeologist and oversees cultural resource management projects in northwest Alberta.

He completed his PhD in Anthropology at the University of Alberta.

His research interests have stretched from the Beothuk of Newfoundland to the Dene of the Mackenzie Mountains and ice patches of Jasper National Park.

Long Ago Yukon is a voluntary group that endeavours to engage Yukoners through a variety of anthropological, archaeological and paleontological educational activities and community events.

It supports the protection and preservation of the archaeological and paleontological heritage of our territory.