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45-693: The South Georgia Museum is situated in Grytviken , near the administrative centre of the UK overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands . Polar explorers Ernest Shackleton and Frank Wild are buried in Grytviken's graveyard. The museum was established in 1991 by Nigel Bonner . The museum is housed in "the Villa". It was built in 1914, as a residence for the manager of

90-404: A tundra climate ( Köppen ET ) with long, cold winters and short, cool summers. The highest temperature ever recorded at Grytviken/King Edward Point was 28.8 °C (83.8 °F) on 10 March 1922. Johan Gunnar Andersson After studies at Uppsala University , and research in the polar regions, Andersson served as Director of Sweden's National Geological Survey . He participated in

135-468: A bronze bust of Duncan Carse by British sculptor Jon Edgar . Carse was influential in the mapping of South Georgia and the island's Mount Carse is named after him. The Bonner Room is named in recognition of Nigel Bonner's work in creating the museum. The Jarvis Room is named after Russell Jarvis, who was Deputy Governor of the Falkland Islands from 1997 to 2003, for his dedicated support of

180-665: A few staff who manage the South Georgia Museum . The settlement has become a popular attraction for Antarctic cruise lines, with many tourists visiting the resting places of polar explorers Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Wild in Grytviken's graveyard . The settlement at Grytviken was established on 16 November 1904 by the Norwegian sea captain Carl Anton Larsen , as a whaling station for his Compañía Argentina de Pesca (Argentine Fishing Company). It

225-566: A large amount of material was shipped to Uppsala for analysis. Eventually in 1926, on the occasion of a visit by the Swedish Prince to Beijing , Andersson announced the discovery of two human teeth. These were later identified as being the first finds of the Peking Man . In collaboration with Chinese colleagues such as Yuan Fuli and others, he then discovered prehistoric Neolithic remains in central China's Henan Province , along

270-488: A long time getting there." During the Falklands War , Grytviken was captured by Argentine forces in early April 1982 following a brief battle with Royal Marines . The Royal Marines, SAS and SBS retook the settlement three weeks later without a shot being fired in return. Supported by the corvette ARA  Guerrico on 3 April 1982, ARA Bahía Paraíso landed a party of Argentine marines who attacked

315-463: A service was conducted in remembrance of Anders Hansen (a Norwegian whaler buried at Grytviken Cemetery in 1943) and to celebrate his great-great-grandson Axel Wattø Eide's baptism occurring in Oslo the same day. Multiple wrecks dot Grytviken, and its environs. The ships Petrel , Dias and Albatross were beached, and left to rust, after decades of service. Grytviken and King Edward Point have

360-456: A specialised whaling museum, subsequently expanding its expositions to include all aspects of the discovery of the island, sealing industry , whaling , maritime and natural history, as well as the 1982 Falklands War . The museum became a popular tourist venue, visited by approximately 10,000 cruise ship and yacht tourists a year until the COVID-19 pandemic . The museum displays include

405-600: A staff member of China's National Geological Survey, conducted archaeological excavations in the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai , in the following years, 1923–24, again in collaboration with his Chinese colleagues, and he published numerous books and scientific papers on Chinese archaeology, many in the Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities , which he founded and launched in 1929, and in it, he published his most significant scientific reports on his own work, including

450-568: Is a hamlet on South Georgia in the South Atlantic and formerly a whaling station and the largest settlement on the island. It is located at the head of King Edward Cove within the larger Cumberland East Bay , considered the best harbour on the island. The location's name, meaning "pot bay", was coined in 1902 by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition and documented by the surveyor Johan Gunnar Andersson , after

495-406: Is housed in the manager's house of the former whaling station, and is open during the summer tourist season. The station's church is the only building which retains its original purpose; it is still used occasionally for services. There have been several marriages in Grytviken, the first being registered on 24 February 1932, between A.G.N. Jones and Vera Riches. On 28 January 2007,

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540-627: Is preserved at the South Georgia Museum in Grytviken. Managers and other senior officers of the whaling stations often had their families living together with them. Among them was Fridthjof Jacobsen whose wife Klara Olette Jacobsen gave birth to two of their children in Grytviken; their daughter Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen was the first child ever born and raised south of the Antarctic Convergence , on 8 October 1913. Several more children have been born on South Georgia: recently even aboard visiting private yachts. The whale population in

585-423: The Grytviken whaling station and his family, and was occupied until the station closed in 1964. The abandoned building suffered from the effects of severe weather, as well as the destructive actions of vandals. Decades later, after Antarctic scientist David Wynn-Williams suggested it be made into a museum, Antarctic and marine mammal specialist Nigel Bonner and a small team of workers, with funding support from

630-708: The Royal Navy damaged and captured the Argentine submarine ARA  Santa Fe at South Georgia. The Argentine garrison in Grytviken surrendered without returning fire. The following day the detachment in Leith Harbour commanded by Captain Alfredo Astiz also surrendered. One prisoner, Felix Artuso, was shot when guards mistakenly believed he was trying to sabotage Santa Fe , and was buried at Grytviken Cemetery . The Argentine personnel were removed from

675-573: The South Sandwich Islands by HMS Endurance on 20 June. Due to evidence of an unauthorised visit, the closed station Corbeta Uruguay was destroyed in January ;1983. Along with the surrounding area, the station has been declared an Area of Special Tourist Interest (ASTI). Grytviken is a popular stop for cruise ships visiting Antarctica, and tourists usually land to visit Shackleton's grave. The South Georgia Museum

720-621: The Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901 to 1903 (on the ship Antarctic ). His work on the Falkland Islands and the Bjørnøya , where he first coined the term solifluction , influenced Walery Łoziński 's creation of the concept of periglaciation in 1909. In 1914, Andersson was invited to China as a mining adviser to the Chinese government. His affiliation was with China's National Geological Survey (Dizhi diaochasuo) which

765-695: The Yellow River . The remains were named the Yangshao culture after the village where they were first excavated, in 1921. This discovery was another extremely important breakthrough, because the prehistory of what is now China had not yet been investigated in scientific archaeological excavations and the Yangshao and other prehistoric cultures were completely unknown (they had never been mentioned in any historical documents, and they had never been recognized and investigated). The decoration of Yangshao pottery

810-472: The British magistrate and other civilians and military present in Grytviken were removed from South Georgia, another 15 Britons remained beyond Argentine reach. The losses suffered at Grytviken prevented Argentina from occupying the rest of the island, with Bird Island base, and field camps at Schlieper Bay , Lyell Glacier and St. Andrew's Bay remaining under British control. On 25 April,

855-678: The Discovery of China's Prehistory. Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities [Östasiatiska museet], 2004. In 1926, Andersson founded the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm , Sweden ( Swedish : Östasiatiska museet ), a national museum established to house the Swedish part of the collections from these first-ever scientific archaeological excavations in China. Andersson served as

900-499: The South Georgia Government, worked to remove environmental hazards at the abandoned whaling station, and renovate and restore the Villa for use as a museum. Bonner wrote: "If [the museum] causes [visitors] to think a little more deeply about the whaling industry, the management of natural resources, and the society of whalers, I think we shall have achieved our objective." The South Georgia Museum opened in 1992 as

945-580: The book Preliminary Report on Archaeological Research in Kansu published in 1925. Andersson's archaeological activities and the view of Chinese culture which originated in the west caused a great uproar in China. The excavations by Chinese archaeologists, such as Li Ji , Fu Sinian , and Liang Siyong , based on their excavations in Yinxu and Chengziya , indicated an independent root for Chinese civilization. Despite this fact, it can be said that Andersson paved

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990-569: The director of the MFEA until he was succeeded in 1939 by the famous Swedish Sinologist Bernhard Karlgren . Selections of the Swedish portion of the materials is on display at the MFEA in a new permanent exhibit launched 2004. The Chinese part of the Andersson collections, according to a bilateral Sino-Swedish agreement, was returned by him to the Chinese government in seven shipments, 1927–1936. The first shipments were sent by Andersson to Peking, and

1035-563: The exhibits. The objects were long thought to be irretrievably lost in the civil war that followed, until 2002. After major renovations at the Geological Museum of China , the successor to the Geological Survey's museum, staff found three crates of ceramic vessels and fragments while re-organising items in storage. Following contact with the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities ( Östasiatiska Museet ) in Stockholm , it

1080-404: The expedition found old English try pots used to render seal oil at the site. Settlement was re-established on 16 November 1904 by Norwegian Antarctic explorer Carl Anton Larsen on the long-used site of former whaling settlements. Grytviken is built on a substantial area of sheltered, flat land and has a good supply of fresh water. Although it was the largest settlement on South Georgia,

1125-432: The expedition heading south to Antarctica. His widow chose South Georgia as his final resting place so this is where he remained. His grave is located south of Grytviken, alongside those of whalers who had died on the island. On 27 November 2011, the ashes of Frank Wild , Shackleton's "right-hand man," were interred on the right side of Shackleton's grave-site. The inscription on the rough-hewn granite block set to mark

1170-520: The explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton . Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out from London on 1 August 1914, to reach the Weddell Sea on 10 January 1915, where the pack ice closed in on their ship, Endurance . The ship was broken by the ice on 27 October 1915. The 28 crew members managed to flee to Elephant Island off Antarctica, bringing three small boats with them. Shackleton and five other men managed to reach

1215-473: The island's administration was based at the nearby British Antarctic Survey research station at King Edward Point . The whaling station closed in December 1966 when dwindling whale stocks made it financially unviable. Grytviken no longer has permanent residents but occasionally accommodates researchers and British administrative and military personnel. It is also temporarily inhabited during summer months by

1260-531: The last ones to Nanjing, which had become the new capital of China. An exhibit with these objects was mounted at the new National Geological Survey complex in Nanjing , where Andersson saw them in 1937, the last time they were reported seen by anyone. The last documentary evidence of these objects was a 1948 Visitors Guide to the Geological Survey museum in Nanjing, which listed Andersson's Yangshao artefacts among

1305-476: The magistrate of South Georgia and granted in 1910, Captain Larsen wrote: "I have given up my Norwegian citizen's rights and have resided here since I started whaling in this colony on the 16 November 1904 and have no reason to be of any other citizenship than British, as I have had and intend to have my residence here still for a long time." His family in Grytviken included his wife, three daughters and two sons. As

1350-484: The manager of Compañía Argentina de Pesca, Larsen organised the construction of Grytviken, a remarkable undertaking accomplished by a team of sixty Norwegians between their arrival on 16 November and commencement of production at the newly built whale-oil factory on 24 December 1904. Larsen chose the whaling station's site during his 1902 visit while in command of the ship Antarctic of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901–03) led by Otto Nordenskjöld . On that occasion,

1395-496: The museum. For several years Tim and Pauline Carr served as museum curators , living on board their yacht Curlew moored in the Grytviken port. The museum is now managed by the South Georgia Heritage Trust and is staffed by three members who are the only non-permanent residents that live in Grytviken. The collection can also be viewed online. An occasional artist-in-residence position is supported by

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1440-594: The museum. Previous artists to have been resident at the museum include the British sculptor Anthony Smith , who in November 2017 delivered a life-sized bronze portrait bust of Sir Ernest Shackleton to the Museum, which is now on permanent display. The museum reopened in December 2021. 54°16′49″S 36°30′27″W  /  54.2802°S 36.5076°W  / -54.2802; -36.5076 Grytviken Grytviken ( / ˈ ɡ r ɪ t v iː k ən / GRIT -vee-kən Norwegian: [ˈɡɾŷːtviːkn̩] )

1485-410: The name Grytviken ("The Pot Cove") was given by the Swedish archaeologist and geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson who surveyed part of Thatcher Peninsula and found numerous artefacts and features from sealers’ habitation and industry, including a shallop (a type of small boat) and several try-pots used to boil seal oil. One of those try-pots, having the inscription ‘Johnson and Sons, Wapping Dock, London’

1530-488: The objects returned to China by Andersson remain lost. This includes a spectacular and unique human-faced ceramic shaman head (see illustration in Fiskesjö and Chen 2004, repeated in Fiskesjö 2010), and numerous spectacular painted ceramic vessels. Even though similar such ceramics have been excavated since Andersson's time by Chinese archaeologists, these lost collections hold a special interest and value since they derive from

1575-495: The platoon of 22 Royal Marines deployed at Grytviken . The two-hour battle resulted in ARA Guerrico being damaged and an Argentine Puma helicopter shot down. The Argentine forces sustained three men killed and a similar number of wounded, with one wounded on the British side. The British commanding officer Lieutenant Keith Mills was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for the defence of South Georgia. While

1620-428: The rodent fossils found in abundance there. He returned in 1921 and local quarrymen took him to Dragon Bone Hill , where he identified a quartz sample that was not native to the area. Realising that the presence of non-native quartz may indicate the presence of prehistoric man, he sent his assistant, Otto Zdansky to the area and ordered him to excavate it. Zdansky returned and conducted further excavations in 1923 and

1665-406: The seas around the island was substantially reduced over the following sixty years until the station closed in December 1966, by which time the whale stocks were so low that their continued exploitation was unviable. Even now, the shore around Grytviken is littered with whale bones and the rusting remains of whale oil processing plants and abandoned whaling ships. Grytviken is closely associated with

1710-551: The southern coast of South Georgia in James Caird . They arrived at Cave Cove , and camped at Peggotty Bluff , from where they trekked to Stromness on the northeast coast. From Grytviken, Shackleton organised a rescue operation to bring home the remaining men. He again returned to Grytviken during the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition and this is where he died, aged just 47, shortly after New Year's Day, prior to

1755-525: The spot reads "Frank Wild 1873–1939, Shackleton's right-hand man." Wild's relatives and Shackleton's only granddaughter, Alexandra Shackleton, attended a service conducted by Richard Hines, rector of the Falkland Islands . The writer Angie Butler discovered the ashes in the vault of Braamfontein Cemetery, Johannesburg , while researching her book The Quest for Frank Wild . She said "His ashes will now be where they were always supposed to be. It just took them

1800-591: The way for the foundation of modern Chinese archaeology. Andersson's most well-known book about his time in China is Den gula jordens barn , 1932, translated into several languages, including English (as Children of the Yellow Earth , 1934, reprinted in 1973), Japanese, and Korean. For an extensive bibliography of Andersson's works, and a comprehensive discussion of his and his colleagues' archaeological research in China, see M. Fiskesjö and Chen Xingcan, China before China: Johan Gunnar Andersson, Ding Wenjiang, and

1845-540: The winter to maintain the boats and factory. Every few months a transport ship would bring essential supplies to the station and take away the oil and other produce. The following year the Argentine Government established a meteorological station . Carl Anton Larsen, the founder of Grytviken, was a naturalised Briton born in Sandefjord , Norway . In his application for British citizenship, filed with

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1890-481: Was confirmed that these were indeed left from Andersson's excavations. In 2006, these objects featured in an exhibition at the Geological Museum on the occasion of its 90th anniversary, celebrating the lives and work of Andersson and its other founders. In 2007, the Geological Museum of China published a documentary film (see review and discussion in Fiskesjö 2010). Still, as of 2010, the vast majority of

1935-502: Was organized and led by the Chinese scholar Ding Wenjiang (V.K. Ting) and his colleague Wong Wen-hao ( Pinyin : Weng Wenhao ). During this time, Andersson assisted in the training of China's first generation of geologists, and he also made numerous discoveries of iron ore and other natural resources, as well as geological and paleontological discoveries. Andersson paid his first visit to Zhoukoudian in 1918 drawn to an area called "Chicken Bone Hill" by locals who had misidentified

1980-549: Was similar to the decoration of Anau and Tripolje pottery in Central Asia and Europe, and both of them have similar spiral patterns. Therefore, Andersson hypothesized that Chinese painted pottery could have spread from the west. He believed that the Ancient China and Central Asia could have passed through Xinjiang and Gansu regions. In order to prove the hypothesis of a "West Origin", Andersson, in his capacity as

2025-426: Was successful, with 195 whales taken in the first season. The whalers used every part of the animals – the blubber, meat, bones and viscera were rendered to extract the oil, and the bones and meat were turned into fertiliser and fodder. Elephant seals were also hunted for their blubber. Around 300 men worked at the station during its heyday, operating during the southern summer from October to March. A few remained over

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