John O’Shea, curator of Great Lakes Archaeology at the UMMAA, will speak at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, Michigan, on Thursday, July 11, as part of the Sanctuary Lecture Series.

O’Shea will talk about his underwater research on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, a Lake Huron feature that once formed a land corridor between Michigan and Ontario during a low water phase thousands of years ago. Stone hunting structures preserved underwater on the ridge date to about 9,000 years ago and are some of the oldest dated examples in the world. This research formed the basis for the 2015 book O’Shea co-edited with Elizabeth Sonnenburg and Ashley K. Lemke: Caribou Hunting in the Upper Great Lakes: Archaeological, Ethnographic, and Paleoenvironmental Perspectives. At Thursday’s talk, O’Shea will describe the techniques he and his crew use for underwater archaeological research, and he’ll summarize some of the most recent findings.

The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Lecture from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, July 11, at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, 500 W. Fletcher St., Alpena.

Read more about the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary here.