Ancient artefacts found in melting snow

[laserguy]

 

 

As for the 'tunic's' it would appear the best reason for them being discarded into Glaciers was that the victim had been caught short in a winter storm and so was suffering from the final stages of Hypothermia as the victim suddenly feels very hot and strips off to cool down......

 

On the other hand, maybe he'd just overdone the sauce and decided to get nekkid. Maybe it was too warm for him! I bet the final stages of hypothermia don't involve feeling hot and making conscious decisions to do something about it...

[knocker]

So what was knocker referring to when musing that the tunic may have been worn by a skeptic? Skeptic of what - alien life forms? I would have kept out of this due to its high boredom content, had it not been for the blatant prod. Boy, you warmists do wear your hearts on your sleeves.

 

It was a tongue-in-cheek remark and not meant to be taken seriously or detract from main point of the thread.

[Gray-Wolf]

I know we have a restrictions on various ivory producing regions but the fact that Paleo ivory now makes up the majority of sales cannot be the only reason we see so much today?

 

The Tundra regions show measured ablation and river cliffs are doing the excavation work for the collectors. In some regions the herders make nearly all there disposable income from collecting and selling such relics.

 

We cannot but accept the fact that our permafrost is melting and along with it the deep frozen contents are now emerging at accelerating rates.

 

These are the bare bones of the matter, no spin. 

 

If we are losing ice then that entrapped within it becomes free. The evidence stands witness if folk chose to ignore the science.

[Yarmy]

You know the really interesting aspect of this is that it provides archaeologists with precious and rare resources to learn more about how our stone age ancestors lived.

Yet for some it's a portent of impending doom and for others it means it was at least as warm 6000 years ago, hurray. I find it all a bit sad.

[knocker]

You know the really interesting aspect of this is that it provides archaeologists with precious and rare resources to learn more about how our stone age ancestors lived.Yet for some it's a portent of impending doom and for others it means it was at least as warm 6000 years ago, hurray. I find it all a bit sad.

 

Very true and that's what I find interesting about it. Nobody disputes it was at least as warm 6000 years ago but as far as I know millions of people were not then living in precarious locations that put them in danger of climate change.Or indeed depending on food supplies and disease spread. Although of course we don't know how they died.

[Weather-history]

Obviously there was less snow when the artifacts arrived there, or did they dig down in it to place them - I think not.

That tunic found in glacier as well, so I would assume it has moved with the glacier over time. So I assume it was first left even higher up.

[Devonian]

That tunic found in glacier as well, so I would assume it has moved with the glacier over time. So I assume it was first left even higher up.

 

Sounds reasonable.

 

However this is the abstract of the article reporting the finds:

 

"High altitude snowfields provide repositories of well-preserved organic remains of considerable antiquity, as spectacular discoveries such as the Similaun Iceman illustrate. In Scandinavia, melting snow patches have been systematically surveyed by volunteer groups for almost a century, and a growing collection of archaeological artefacts has been recovered. Only recently, however, has AMS dating confirmed that some of the finds go back as far as the Neolithic. Here fragments of five Neolithic arrowshafts and a Neolithic longbow discovered in 2010–11 in the Oppdal area of Norway are described. They throw light on Neolithic bow and arrow technology and tangentially on the hunting techniques which may have attracted hunters to these snow patches in search of game. The progressive and accelerated melting of the snow patches in recent years draws attention to processes of climate change and the urgency of discovering and recovering these fragile perishable artefacts."

 

So, oddly, no mention of a glacier. And if by 'snow patch' they mean what we think of as a snow patch the relics might well be not far from where they were left/fell. Time to send the authors an email...

 

Edit: done, will report back on any reply.

Edited October 13, 2013 by Devonian

[Gray-Wolf]

From what I have discovered the 'snow patch' archaeology takes place in patches of snow that have historically remained year around. Only recently have we seen them melt out completely.

 

The fact that large game has utilised these patches suggests that they have been around for vast stretches of time and like some creatures pass on knowledge of 'water holes' in warmer climes, have become part of the herds annual migration route. The hunting artefacts we find there also confirm this with our ancestors utilising the knowledge that big game will congregate there at certain times of year?

 

Spear and arrows would not have been 'left' without an extensive search for them seeing the trouble folk went to to make them in the first place. This would suggest the object became buried, and hidden, during the hunt ( they were fired into the snow and not just left on the surface).

 

As we all know the northern lands had past max heating for this interglacial and had begun cooling up until a sudden reversal around 100yrs ago. This means that even through the thermal max these patches endured yet in this period where temps ought to be falling they have now begun to melt out completely.

 

To recognise this is occurring means we can better coordinate attempts to recover these artefacts before they are lost forever. It has nothing to do with 'pushing a message' but everything to do with living within the reality. Would folk demand we lose this opportunity because it also appears to confirm the global changes that we are amidst?

[4wd]

 Would folk demand we lose this opportunity because it also appears to confirm the global changes that we are amidst?

Who suggested that, I think it was just so bleedin obvious that the subtext of the thread was supposed to be 'unprecedented melting' but clearly when the items were lost it can't have been much different from now.

In any case any individual permanent snowfield location is going to vary hugely as a result of precipitation changes as much if not more than mean temperature.Scandinavia like most of NW Europe has shown marked cooling recently BTW.

[knocker]

Who suggested that, I think it was just so bleedin obvious that the subtext of the thread was supposed to be 'unprecedented melting' but clearly when the items were lost it can't have been much different from now.

In any case any individual permanent snowfield location is going to vary hugely as a result of precipitation changes as much if not more than mean temperature.Scandinavia like most of NW Europe has shown marked cooling recently BTW.

 

That is incorrect. There was no subtext suggesting unprecedented melting apart from in some imaginations.

 

Melting snow patches reveal Neolithic archery

 

High altitude snowfields provide repositories of well-preserved organic remains of considerable antiquity, as spectacular discoveries such as the Similaun Iceman illustrate. In Scandinavia, melting snow patches have been systematically surveyed by volunteer groups for almost a century, and a growing collection of archaeological artefacts has been recovered. Only recently, however, has AMS dating confirmed that some of the finds go back as far as the Neolithic. Here fragments of five Neolithic arrowshafts and a Neolithic longbow discovered in 2010–11 in the Oppdal area of Norway are described. They throw light on Neolithic bow and arrow technology and tangentially on the hunting techniques which may have attracted hunters to these snow patches in search of game. The progressive and accelerated melting of the snow patches in recent years draws attention to processes of climate change and the urgency of discovering and recovering these fragile perishable artefacts.

 

 

http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/087/ant0870728.htm

Edited October 13, 2013 by knocker