Rockland — Dr. Colin Amundsen will give a slide-talk on the recent archaeological excavations from the west coast of Norway that date from the late Mesolithic period on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 6:30 p.m. at the Rockland Public Library.

These excavations were conducted by field archaeologists at the University of Bergen Museum during the field season of 2012. In western Norway the late Mesolithic dates to approximately 6000 to 7000 years ago when the sea level was about 12 to 13 meters higher than the current sea level. During this period, prior to the onset of agriculture, Neolithic people were engaged in hunting and fishing. The early results from the current field season brought about some interesting finds rarely recovered from the Mesolithic. Similar to Midcoast Maine, this region of Norway in Hordland County is dotted with tiny island communities and fishing villages.

Amundsen lives and works in Bergen, Norway, but Rockport is his U.S. residence. Raised in Connecticut, he attended the University of Maine at Orono for his bachelor’s in anthropology and then attended the Graduate Center at the City University of New York for his Ph.D. in anthropology. He has worked as an arctic archaeologist for the last 15 years working in Labrador, Canada, Iceland and Finnmark, Norway. For the last 10 years he has been working in Norway's arctic region and now Norway’s west coast.

For more information call the library at 594-0310.

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