| How global warming is aiding – and frustrating | | | | at the site in the Jotunheimen mountains, home of |
| – archaeologists | | | | the "ice giants" of Norse mythology. These finds |
| From hunting gear to shoes, ancient artefacts once | | | | have been logged with a GPS satellite marker before |
| covered by ice are being unearthed in Norway. Now | | | | being taken for examination. From these |
| scientists face a race against time to preserve them. | | | | measurements, archaeologists reckon people using |
| Archaeologists have gained an unexpected benefit | | | | hunting sticks – each about a meter long with a |
| from global warming. They have discovered melting | | | | flapping piece of wood attached by connecting |
| ice sheets and glaciers are exposing ancient artefacts | | | | thread – were set up about two meters apart. |
| that had been covered with thick layers of ice for | | | | They then drove reindeer toward hunters who |
| millennia in parts of the world. | | | | needed to get within 60ft of an animal to have a |
| The discoveries are providing new insights into the | | | | chance of hitting one with an iron-tipped arrow. |
| behavior of our ancestors – but they come at a | | | | Such a hunt would require 15 to 20 people, Piloe, an |
| price. So rapid is the rise in global temperatures, and | | | | archaeologist adds, indicating that Norway had an |
| so great is the rate of disintegration of the world's | | | | organized society around the start of the dark ages, |
| glaciers, that archaeologists risk losing precious relics | | | | 1,500 years ago. "Our main focus is the rescue part," |
| freed from the icy tombs. Wood rots in a few years | | | | according to Piloe. "There are many ice patches. We |
| once freed from ice while rarer feathers used on | | | | can only cover a few. We know we are losing |
| arrows, wool or leather, crumble to dust in days | | | | artefacts everywhere." |
| unless stored in a freezer. As a result, archaeologists | | | | Similar discoveries have been made in glaciers or in |
| are racing against time to find and save these newly | | | | permafrost from Alaska to Siberia. Italy's iceman |
| exposed wonders. | | | | "Ötzi", killed by an arrow wound approximately |
| A perfect example is provided at Juvfonna in | | | | 5,000 years ago, was found in an Alpine glacier, for |
| Norway, where reindeer hunting gear used by the | | | | example. |
| Vikings' ancestors has been found littering the ground | | | | Patrick Hunt, of Stanford University in California, who |
| as the front edge of Juvfonna's ice sheet has | | | | is trying to find where Carthaginian general Hannibal |
| retreated. A section more than 60ft wide has | | | | invaded Italy in 218 BC with an army and elephants, |
| disappeared over the course of 12 months, exposing | | | | says there is now an alarming rate of thaw in the |
| several hundred artefacts. "It's like a time machine... | | | | Alps: "This is the first summer since 1994 when we |
| the ice has not been this small for many, many | | | | began our field excavations above 8,000ft that we |
| centuries," says Lars Piloe, the Dane heading a team | | | | have not been inundated by even one day of rain, |
| of "snow patch archaeologists". | | | | sleet and snow flurries. I expect we will see more ice |
| Bows and arrows, specialized hunting sticks – | | | | patch archaeology discoveries." |
| used to drive reindeer towards archers – and | | | | Just how many others will be lost to science is |
| even a 3,400-year-old leather shoe have been found | | | | difficult to assess, however. |