Effects of Climate Change Threaten Critical Archaeological Sites

Climate change threatens to destroy archaeological sites worldwide as rising sea levels contribute to the erosion of coastal sites and ancient ruins, and melting glacial ice exposes millenia-old remains to rot, according to a report in Archaeology. Scythian burial mounds in the Altai Mountains, located on the edge of the Siberian permafrost region, are on the verge of thawing and rotting away. On the Greenland coast, the disappearance of drifting sea ice during the summer months has removed a protective barrier to the relics of the ancient Thule culture, people who migrated to the region 2,000 years ago. And on California’s Channel Islands, rising seas and coastal erosion threaten to wipe out evidence of what may have been the first human settlement of the Americas. Such changes to the climate have forced archaeological teams to focus on quick solutions to preserve these areas ”“ if only long enough to study them. “With climate change, we’re feeling a sense of urgency,” said Michael Kimball, a University of Northern Colorado anthropologist who organized a discussion on climate change at last year’s World Archaeology Congress in Dublin.