Warming Arctic Helps Archeologists Make Extraordinary Find
28.04.2010 - Ice & Snow, Human Dimension, Arctic
Scientists have found artifacts dating back to 2,400 years ago in the Mackenzie Mountains in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The ancient hunting tools that had been frozen in patches of ice formed through the accumulation of snowfall over the years, which until recently remained frozen throughout the entire year.
An interdisciplinary team was able to conduct research on the ice patches. They found some extraordinary devices, including:
- 2,400-year-old spears
- a 1,000-year-old ground squirrel snare
- 850-year-old bows and arrows
While the biologists on the team analyze dung for plant remains, insect parts, pollen and caribou parasites, other team members will try to find the origins and migration patterns of the caribou using their DNA.
However the team says there is an urgency to collect the artifacts as the ice patches melt. If left unattended, the artifacts, once exposed, would either be trampled by the herds of caribou or dissolved by the acidic soils at the site.
“Ice patch” archeology is a recent phenomenon that began in 1997 when sheep hunters in the Yukon Territory came across a 4,300-year-old dart shaft in caribou dung that had become exposed as the ice covering it receded.
