Clock ticking for ‘treasure’ in melting glaciers
SION (Switzerland): The group climbed the steep mountainside, clambering across an Alpine glacier, before finding what they were seeking: a crystal vein filled with the precious rocks needed to sculpt their tools.
That is what archaeologists have deduced after the discovery of traces of an ancient hunt for crystals by hunters in the Mesolithic era, some 9,500 years ago.
It is one of many valuable archaeological sites to emerge in recent decades from rapidly melting glacier ice, sparking a brand-new field of research: glacier archaeology.
Amid surging temperatures, glaciologists predict 95% of the some 4,000 glaciers dotted throughout the Alps could disappear by the end of this century.
While archaeologists lament the devastating toll of climate change, many acknowledge it has created “an opportunity” to dramatically expand understanding of mountain life millennia ago.
“We are making fascinating finds that opens a window into a part of archaeology that we don’t normally get,” said Marcel Cornelissen, who headed an excavation trip last month to the crystal site near the Brunifirm glacier in the Swiss canton of Uri, at an altitude of 2,800m.
Up until the early 1990s, it was widely believed that people in prehistoric times steered clear of towering and intimidating mountains.
But a number of startling finds have since emerged from melting ice indicating mountain ranges have been bustling with human activity for thousands of years.
Christian auf der Maur, an archaeologist with Uri canton who took part in the crystal site expedition, said the find there was “truly exceptional”.
The first major ancient Alpine find to emerge from the melting ice was the discovery in 1991 of “Oetzi”, a 5,300-year-old warrior whose body had been preserved inside an Alpine glacier in the Italian Tyrol region.
The Schnidejoch pass, a lofty trail in the Bernese Alps 2,756m above sea level, has for instance been a boon to scientists since 2003, with the find of a birch bark quiver – a case for arrows – dating as far back as 3000 BC.
Later, leather trousers and shoes, likely from the same ill-fated person, were also discovered, along with hundreds of other objects dating as far back as 4500 BC.