The upside of global warming – Icepatch Archaeology

Not everything that seems bad is all bad. Take climate change for example. There is no doubt in the minds of experts that global warming is happening. The earth warms and the ice melts, and we hear a great deal about the dangers. While these dangers are not to be underestimated, global warming also has some gifts for us.

Amazing finds are starting to melt out of the ice, and archaeologists are finding the answers to ancient questions as the ice reveals long-buried, or in this case, long-frozen, prehistoric secrets about how human beings lived long ago in harsh times. From the ice, human hunting tools, like spears, and arrowheads, 900 to 9000 years old, are starting to thaw out.

It’s not just intact weapons that archaeologists are uncovering in the Yukon. They are finding clear evidence as to how the weapons were used and what they were used for. Some of the weapons were completely intact. The first one found was a throwing spear with sinew and parts of a feather still attached. Without the ice to preserve it, these things would have rotted away centuries ago. Instead, these items tell a story that humans could only have guessed at previously.

The reason they remain so well preserved is because they remained in exactly the place where they were dropped on the ice patch. An ice patch is different from a glacier, because it doesn’t move, so the items have not been damaged over the centuries as they would have been if they had moved. But now, they are moving. They are thawing rapidly from the ice and flowing down the meltwater stream and into the hands of the archaeologists.

By finding these weapons, and making usable replicas, scientists are learning about how ancient hunters were able to take down animals as large as caribou with only a throwing spear, or dart. They have been able to see how the feathers were positioned and how the weapons were constructed. The weapons they are finding are more sophisticated, accurate and powerful than they had expected, and there are more answers than that. Organic material can be carbon dated, but stone can’t. If an arrowhead is found, it is hard to tell exactly how old it is, but if that same arrowhead were to be found attached to its wooden spear with the sinew threads and feathers, scientists can pinpoint it exactly.

There is another answer being given to us here. Scientists, residents of the Arctic, the first nations people can see the history coming alive in the stories and the new knowledge. The artifacts are validating the stories of the past and, the sophistication and depth of human beings in the past and their history. A lot of answers about human beings and where we came from are starting to come forward.

It’s amazing to think that climate change, a fact that has been so worrying since scientists started to encourage individuals and nations to be more aware of what we burned, how we travel or what we throw away, could have a good side as well. But to everything, there is a story. And that is not to say, of course, that global warming is not a concern, but suddenly because of it, answers to questions older than history are starting to melt right into our laps.

What else is there, under the ice?  It’s not only the Canadian north that has secrets to reveal. Other countries are making discoveries, asking questions and finding answers, and instead of using those answers to hide from the truths that are under there, we can use those truths to learn even more.