ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the overview of the material historical remains of human activities in the Polar Regions and explains under which circumstances such remains have been recognized as cultural heritage, and a resource. It makes a distinction between material historical remains and cultural heritage sites. The chapter overviews the different types of archaeological sites in the Arctic and Antarctic. It divides the archaeological sites into the categories pre-industrial and industrial. The chapter discusses which archaeological sites have been interpreted as cultural heritage, by whom and why. A significant part of the archaeological sites in the Polar Regions consists of remains from large-scale natural resource exploitation. The indigenous populations in the Arctic region were the first to utilize minerals, although on a limited scale and for local needs. Just like in the Arctic, however, the Antarctic continent and the archipelagos that surround it bear the imprints of human activity across centuries–archaeological sites resulting from sealing, whaling and scientific research.
