conversationAugust 19, 2021 2:15:37 PM
In the alpine regions of the world, life needs ice. From the Rocky Mountains to the Himalayas, there are glaciers and other snow and ice year round. These patches of ice, which can often be found on shady slopes protected from the sun, transform barren peaks into biological hotspots.
As an archaeologist, I rate these patches of snow and ice for the unusual peaks that can be provided retrospectively by ancient alpine fog. When people lose things in the ice, the ice stain acts as a natural freezer. You can save snapshots of the culture, everyday life, skills and behavior of the people who created these relics over millennia.
Isaac Hart, an archaeologist and paleo-environmental researcher at the University of Utah, examines a patch of melted ice in western Mongolia. Peter Bittner, CC BY-ND
Frozen heritage is melting from Bergeis on all hemispheres. A small group of archaeologists are working to bring together the resources and personnel needed to identify, recover and study these objects before they disappear.
We work with the University of Colorado, the National Museum of Mongolia and a group of partner scientists around the world to identify, analyze and preserve ancient material emerging from the ice in the Mongolian steppes. It has a huge impact on how scientists understand the past.
Life on the edge of the ice
In the warm summer, unique plants thrive on the water-rich edges of the ice surfaces. Large animals such as caribou, elk and sheep. Bisons also look for ice to cool off or to escape from insects.
Ice surfaces are a predictable source for these plants and animals, not just freshwater, so they are important to the survival of nearby people almost everywhere. In the dry grasslands of Mongolia, meltwater from Bergeis supplies summer meadows, domestic reindeer in search of ice Similar to their wild counterparts. In addition to global warming, the edges of the ice act as magnets for people and as storage for the materials left behind.
It is not just the biological and cultural significance that makes ice surfaces an important tool in understanding the past. The tangible objects made and used by early hunters and nomads in many mountain areas were made of soft, organic materials. These fragile objects rarely withstand the usual erosion, weather and harsh elements found in alpine areas. However, items that can spoil by throwing away or losing ice can be stored frozen for centuries.
However, the alpine weather is often far from the center of the city, where modern explorers are concentrated. For these reasons, important contributions by mountain people to human histories can be excluded from archaeological records.
In Mongolia, for example, the high mountains of the Altai Mountains housed the region’s oldest idyllic society. But these cultures are only known through the little ones A handful of burials and some ruins of windswept stone building.
More relics are melting from the ice
One of our discoveries was a finely woven length of animal hair rope from a patch of ice on a melting mountain peak in western Mongolia. The investigation revealed that it lay between exposed rocks on the edge of the receding ice. Relics that may have been part of the bridle or harness appeared to have fallen on ice the day before. The guide was even aware of traditional manufacturing techniques. However, due to the scientific radiocarbon dating, the artifacts were actually made more than 1500 years ago.
Such objects give unusual references to the daily life of the ancient nomads in western Mongolia. Their excellent preservation allows them to carry out advanced laboratory analyzes to reconstruct the materials and choices of the early pasture culture. Eventually created the Pan-Eurasian Empire like Xiongnu and the Great Mongol Empire.
For example, scanning electron microscopy showed that camel hair was chosen as the fiber for the bridle of this rope. Meanwhile, collagen preserved in ancient dongs showed that deer tissue was used to carry Bronze Age arrowheads to their shaft.
From time to time, the objects that appear can disprove some of the archaeologists’ most fundamental assumptions about the past. The people of this area have long been classified as grazing societies, but my colleagues and I have found Mongolian glaciers and ice patches, hunting relics like spears and arrows, and skeletons of big names like Argali sheep. It was found to be included. Over a period of over 3,000 years .. These findings show that hunting for big game on Bergeis has been an integral part of the idyllic survival and culture of the Altai Mountains for thousands of years.
But the clock is ticking. Summer 2021 is going to be one of the hottest ever recorded. Burning summer temperatures fry the Pacific Northwest Rainforest, wildfire ravages the Siberian Arctic. The effects of rising temperatures are particularly severe in the coldest parts of the world.
In the area my colleagues and I are studying in Western Mongolia, satellite imagery has lost 40 percent of the ice surface coating over the past 30 years. Scientists after each artifact has been exposed to molten ice before it is damaged, broken down, or lost due to a combination of freezing, thawing, weather, and glacier activity that can affect previously frozen artifacts. May have a limited time frame to restore.
The scale of modern climate change makes it difficult to quantify how much material is being lost. Many of the high mountains of Central and South Asia have never been systematically examined for melted relics. In addition, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many international projects have not been able to continue since summer 2019. As a result, the archeology department at a renowned university will be reduced, reduced or even closed completely.
Revealed by global warming and provide climate clues
Ice patch relics are irreplaceable scientific datasets that help researchers characterize ancient responses to climate change and understand how modern warming is affecting the world today. ..
A 1500 year old mountain of Argali sheep skulls and horn curls, probably piled up on purpose by ancient hunters, melts on the edge of a glacier in western Mongolia. William Tailer, CC BY-ND
In addition to the artificial relics left behind in the snow, the ice patch also preserves “eco-facts”. It is a natural material that tracks important ecological changes such as changes in tree lines and changes in animal habitats. By collecting and interpreting these data sets along with relics from ice, scientists gain insight into how people in the past have adapted to significant ecological changes and the climate of the 21st century. You can expand the toolkit to address the crisis.
Meanwhile, the plant, animal and human communities, which depend on decreasing ice surfaces, are also at stake. In northern Mongolia, my job is to lose ice in summer. Ice loss in surviving pastures. Melting ice converges with other environmental changes: Animal populations drastically reduced in western Mongolia For poaching and poorly regulated tourism hunting.
The ice loss itself will decrease human resilience over the next few years as the heatwave exposes relics that provide insight into ancient climate resilience and other important scientific data. ..
William Tailer, Associate Professor and Archaeological Curator, University of Colorado, Boulder
This article is republished from the conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original work ..
Mongolian Melting Ice Reveals Relics and Provides Clues to People’s Past Lives – Tech News, Firstpost
Source Link Mongolian Melting Ice Reveals Relics, Provides Clues to People’s Past Lives – Technology News, Firstpost
