Glaciers and permafrost hold many of these treasures, but as climate changes, they’re releasing their haul to the elements. Weapons, clothing, and tools, preserved in snow and ice for over thousands of years, have been discovered under the receding mountain ice in Norway.
The finds are truly extraordinary: 1,500 years old iron arrowheads, tunics from the Iron Age, and remains of the wooden ski with leather bindings left behind in the year 700 A.D. Some of the objects were dated back to more than 6,000 years.
This sudden and astounding disclosure of ancient antiquities is climate change, with lower winter precipitation and warmer summers, greatly reducing the alpine ice which acts as a time capsule for lost treasures.
Some of the most thrilling finds are those objects found emerging from the surface of the ice, a sign that they have previously been untouched by melting. These antiques are extraordinarily preserved, with even organic matter like fabrics and leather still present.
Sadly, archaeologists say that the rate of ice melting combined with lesser opportunities to explore the alpine ice patches, some newly exposed items will break down and disappear before anyone could get a chance to study them. However, this points out to a greater problem of climate change as well and how is it affecting our world.