Glaciers are melting faster than ever before, potentially spelling disaster for the planet, but also opening up a new field of research called glacial archaeology. artifact, bodyAnd viruses that have been frozen deep within the ice for millions of years are now thawing and flowing to the surface. Warmer weather has allowed archaeologists to travel through areas that were once too dangerous to excavate.
“I call this dark archaeology, because archaeologists are the unintended beneficiaries of climate change,” he says. Lars Holger Piroa glacier archaeologist; ice secret Project in Norway. “This is a small ray of hope against global warming.”
Approximately 10% of the world Currently covered with glacier ice. This substance acts as a time machine, preserving the state of the trapped object as it was when the frost first formed. Glacier archaeologists don’t have to worry about burials decaying, making them excellent records of the past. Some of the most productive locations include Norway, Yellowstone National Park, and Siberia.
Discovered in 1991 in a melting glacier in the Italian Alps, Ötzi, a prehistoric human estimated to have lived in the 4th millennium BC, remains the greatest discovery in glacial archaeology. But this is not the only notable discovery made in the past 20 years.
treasure trove of arrows
In early September, Pirro and his team searched the Jotunheimen Mountains in eastern Norway and made the discovery. wooden arrow It has a quartzite arrowhead and three feathers. The ancients used feathers to stabilize arrows and guide them to their targets. These accents usually decay over time, but the ice kept them intact. The arrow is estimated to be 3,000 years old and may have belonged to an early Bronze Age reindeer hunter. This is one of several arrows that have surfaced from Norway’s melting ice in recent years.
Pirro says his favorite artifact he found was a 1,400-year-old wooden arrow with a blunt tip. Pirro believes it was very small, at nearly 10 inches long, and would not have caused any damage if it had been shot. Further analysis revealed that it was a toy arrow, probably used by a child trying to learn archery, suggesting that there was an emphasis on hunting during this period. “You can imagine that the arrow was lost in the snow, and the child was very unhappy, thinking that he had lost that toy forever. In fact, 1,400 years later, the arrow melted and we found it. ,” Pirro added.
In 2014, Pirro and his colleagues discovered a prehistoric ski in Norway’s melting ice region. The skis are thought to be 1,300 years old and the bindings were still intact. In 2021, they I met my second ski, making it one of the best-preserved prehistoric skis ever. The skis were so well preserved that they were able to build a replica and ski down the slopes on Iron Age skis, Pirro said. “It was a lot of fun.”
prehistoric animals
In August 2010, Partially preserved carcass of a baby woolly mammoth It was discovered in the permafrost of Siberia. The frozen animal, nicknamed Yuka, is estimated to be around 30,000 years old, dating back to the last ice age. Judging from where the specimen was found, it appears the mammoth got separated from its herd in a grassy field and got stuck in the mud. Given that the lower body was well preserved in the ice, researchers were given the opportunity to analyze the extinct species in detail. extract frozen blood.
The Antarctic melt also yielded some interesting evolutionary discoveries. During a research expedition in 2016, Stephen Emsley discovered the poorly preserved remains of an 800-year-old Adélie penguin and the poorly preserved remains of a waterfowl estimated to be around 5,000 years old.according to Research he published in 2020it is thought that the penguins were moving due to changing sea ice conditions, which prevented the penguin bodies from decomposing due to increased snowfall.
organic processed products
Melting ice sheets are also helping archaeologists identify items belonging to early Native American ancestors around the northern United States. Unlike glaciers, ice blocks are small and move slowly, making them suitable for preserving historic buildings. craig lee, an environmental archaeologist at Montana State University who conducts fieldwork in the Yellowstone and Alaskan ice regions. He and other researchers in his field have discovered all kinds of historical materials in these hotspots, from ancient arrow shafts and spears to well-preserved remains of ancient animals.
Lee and his collaborators were also able to identify organic materials such as wood, textiles, and flake stone tools among the recovered artifacts. “It’s very unusual that we have access to ancient organic materials because they are susceptible to natural decay processes,” Lee explains. “Ice blocks provide this unique preservation environment.” One example is: birch bark basket It was discovered in 2012 in Alaska’s shrinking ice belt and is estimated to be about 650 years old.
a muddy future
While a warming climate is paving the way for more ancient discoveries, it also poses some challenges. Ross McPheePaleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History say that although once-inhospitable areas are now more accessible, melting snow may not provide a good basis for research. “Everything is a mud hole,” he explains, making searching for fossils even more complicated.
There is also the problem of ancient relics being washed away. Pirro estimates that between 60 and 80 percent of Norway’s mountain ice is at risk of melting by the end of the century. He describes it as a race against time. “If we are not prepared to search for these finds, they will be lost and the stories they could have told us will be lost.”
A combination of resources such as aerial photographs of the mountain, digital models of the terrain, and satellite imagery helped glacial archaeologists melt areas where glaciers and artifacts may have melted. But their efforts are reaching a limit as long as the ice around the poles continues to melt at unprecedented rates.If temperatures continue to rise, for example, he said that in July 2023 Hottest month ever recorded in human history— Pirro warns that 90 percent of Norway’s mountain ice could disappear by 2100.
Still, archaeologists like Pirro are trying to take advantage of this fleeting opportunity to dig into as much soft ice as possible. Although the chances are slim, he still holds out hope that the melting glaciers will help find the next ice mummy.
