Global warming is turning out to be a savior for archaeologists like Craig Lee from the University of Colorado at Boulder, who are finding ancient relics in recently melted ice patches.
Lee's lucky strike is the oldest known atlatl dart, an early wooden spear-like hunting weapon, in the Rocky Mountains (pictured, left).
The research team found the 10,000-year-old weapon in a melting ice in the mountains near Yellowstone National Park. The two-foot long birch spear still had markings from the original hunter.
Atlatls have been found all over the world. Researchers believe the weapon was transported to North American around 12,000 years old by migratory hunters from Asia.
Colorado’s team is one of many research groups around the world that are capitalizing on widespread melting of previously stable ice and snow patches.
Earlier this year, researchers in the Mackenzie Mountains of Canada unearthed a collection of old hunting weapons, from a 2,400-year-old spear to multiple arrows around 850 years old.
In an interview with Colorado University News, Lee commented:
“In these instances, what we’re finding as archaeologists is stuff that was lost […] Maybe you missed a shot and your weapon disappeared into the snowbank. It’s like finding your keys when you drop them in snow. You’re not going to find them until spring. Well, the spring hasn’t come until these things started melting for the first time, in some instances, in many, many thousands of years.”
Icy conditions preserve artifacts, but once melting exposes them to fresh air, they'll soon degrade. In a sense, global warming has handed archaeologists a golden opportunity, but researchers like Lee have to act fast before these fragile pieces of the ancient world fade away.
Tags: Ancient Civilizations, Archaeology, Archaeology of the Americas, Early Native Americans
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