UMaine Climate Change Institute Community Lecture in Bangor Jan. 14
Contact: Gregory Zaro, 581-1857 or Gregory.Zaro@umit.maine.edu
ORONO — Gregory Zaro, assistant professor in the University of Maine’s Anthropology Department and Climate Change Institute, will present “Ancient Civilizations, Archaeology and Environmental Change in South America” from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan.14, at the Bangor Public Library. Zaro’s talk is the third installment in the Climate Change Institute’s monthly lecture series, which is free and open to the public.
According to Zaro, humans are active components of the environment and have been manipulating the physical world for thousands of years. While modern industrial nations are often viewed to have the greatest impact on ecological change, ancient civilizations have also left long-lasting imprints on the landscape that continue to shape our contemporary world. In his lecture, Zaro will draw on his research from the Peruvian south coast to illustrate how archaeology can help reveal long-term ecological change and humans’ role in that change.
Zaro spends several months each year in remote locations in Central and South America investigating the manners in which ancient civilizations interacted with their physical world. He is in his third year at the University of Maine, where he teaches courses centered on Latin American archaeology and the environment.
The lecture series is intended to make the science of climate change accessible to a broad audience. All lectures are free and open to the public.