CETARCH Exploring Past Human–Cetacean Relationships in the North Atlantic is an ongoing research project developed by Valerio Punzi to document and investigate archaeological evidence of human–cetacean interactions in the North Atlantic.
Cetaceans have played a significant role in northern communities for centuries, providing food, raw materials, and resources that shaped coastal lifeways. Their remains occur in archaeological sites as worked artefacts, manufacturing waste, architectural elements, and faunal assemblages. Despite their importance, cetacean remains are often understudied and poorly recorded within archaeological collections.
CETARCH aims to bring together archaeological, zooarchaeological, biomolecular, historical, and digital evidence in order to improve the documentation and interpretation of whale-bone assemblages and better understand past human–cetacean relationships. By integrating approaches from archaeology, marine biology, and environmental research, the project explores how cetaceans shaped coastal societies and how archaeological evidence can contribute to the reconstruction of past biodiversity, marine resource exploitation, and long-term interactions between humans and marine mammals.
The project addresses three key questions:
- How can archaeological cetacean remains be more effectively identified, documented, and interpreted?
- What do whale-bone artefacts and manufacturing traces reveal about production, technology, and resource use in past societies?
- What can archaeological cetacean remains reveal about coastal lifeways, marine resource exploitation, biodiversity, and the long-term ecological relationships between humans and cetaceans?
The database currently focuses on material from Iceland and Norway, while remaining open to comparative collections, datasets, and future collaborations from across the wider North Atlantic.
The project emerged from research conducted during the MA thesis From Cetaceans to Artefacts: Whale-Bone Analysis for Understanding Early Coastal Settlements in Iceland and Northern Norway, completed within the Joint MA programme of the University of Iceland and the University of Oslo, funded by UiO research travel grant via the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies (ILN). Developed in collaboration with the MARGAIN project at the Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger, CETARCH continues to expand this research through a growing network of collaborators working on cetacean archaeology, zooarchaeology, marine resource exploitation, marine biodiversity, and North Atlantic coastal societies.