
Ancient artifacts dislodged by climate change - motorogo
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2000-artifacts-pulled-edge-norways-melting-glaciers-180967949/
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mhandley
The unidentified "wrenches" [1] look awfully like a Trangia pan handle [2].
Wonder if they were used to hold a hot cooking pot?

[1]
[https://miro.medium.com/max/4344/1*yF6s3HG4AY4WAQruLPSmag.jp...](https://miro.medium.com/max/4344/1*yF6s3HG4AY4WAQruLPSmag.jpeg)

[2] [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trangia-Pan-
Handle/dp/B06XWJ32LP](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trangia-Pan-
Handle/dp/B06XWJ32LP)

~~~
heelix
Indeed. Never thought about whittling out one. Looks like a neat little
project when we go camping next summer.

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thatgerhard
without a single picture of any of the artifacts

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fredsted
That made me very frustrated! Here's the proper article, with actual pictures:
[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2000-artifacts-
pul...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2000-artifacts-pulled-edge-
norways-melting-glaciers-180967949/)

~~~
mojomark
Thanks for the link. Aside from the OP article's basic regurgitation of prior
(perhaps stale - I couldn't read it either being behind a "sign-in wall"), the
Smithsonian author clearly didn't view it as a race against time and human-
induced climate change, but merely an unexpected windfall for researchers:

"There are countless negative impacts of the changing climate, but the
recovery of these artifacts could be an unexpected positive. Our uncertain
climate future may inadvertently help researchers learn more about our past."

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todd8
The article suggests, that the climate change that we are now concerned about
is responsible for the exposure of these artifacts. Actually, the periodic
glaciation in the earth history is followed by warming periods, known as the
interglacials, during which the glaciers retreat[1]. This melting of glaciers,
and the concomitant rise is sea level has been going on for the last 20,000
years of the current interglacial. I feel like this article, perhaps slightly,
misrepresents what is happening.

Ötzi[2] was discovered almost 40 years ago, before the accelerated warming due
to current climate changes we are concerned about. He was likely uncovered by
the inexorable melting of the glaciers that started during the current
interglacial epoch, known as the Holocene, and which continues today. This
melting explains the small, but constant sea level rise that has been going on
for centuries. [3]

During the last glacial maximum, the Laurentide ice sheet covered millions of
square kilometers including the area that is currently Canada and northern
United States. This ice sheet was up to _4000 meters thick_ , carved out the
Great Lakes, and covered most of North America until 20,000 years ago. [4]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglacial#/media/File:Ice_A...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglacial#/media/File:Ice_Age_Temperature.png)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ötzi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ötzi)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Holocene_sea_level_rise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Holocene_sea_level_rise)

[4] [https://study.com/academy/lesson/laurentide-ice-sheet-
facts-...](https://study.com/academy/lesson/laurentide-ice-sheet-facts-
collapse-timeline.html)

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cs02rm0
If an arrow shaft was found from about 1500 years ago, does that imply there
probably wasn't ice there at the time? Or were people hunting on the ice then?

~~~
mkl
The latter. Anything under the glacier would be pulverised into dust (the
glaciers even carve out their own valleys). These artefacts must have started
up above the ice (on top or down a crack), so the people would have been
hunting on the ice or maybe travelling across it.

~~~
nudq
I don't think we can simply assume that starting position matters to
"pulverization" after 1500 years.

Mobility is more likely; the mobile object moves along with the ice, the
stationary one gets pulverized.

~~~
mkl
I think even moving things that started on the ground would probably be
crushed by the weight, since they would be at the bottom.

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Merrill
Wrenches? Clearly those are bottle openers.

[https://miro.medium.com/max/6516/1*yF6s3HG4AY4WAQruLPSmag.jp...](https://miro.medium.com/max/6516/1*yF6s3HG4AY4WAQruLPSmag.jpeg)

------
aksss
The references to Vikings seem a bit gratuitous, tacked on to the end of
sentences likely by an editor, when the scope of the article is about Ötzi and
3400-year old shoes. I’m sure they’ve found some stuff from 1000 years ago as
well, but the really fascinating material here is far older. But Vikings!!

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erik_landerholm
Are there any good sci-fi novels about global warming thawing out some ancient
alien artifacts?

~~~
smogcutter
Not precisely what you’re looking for with the global warming angle, but At
The Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft and John Carpenter’s The Thing both
feature aliens hidden under the ice.

~~~
magduf
Also the first X-Files movie; it had a whole spaceship buried in Antarctica.

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mnky9800n
why is there so much clip art and so little pictures of artifacts?

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lithos
It's not an article to push the artifacts, it's an article to push global
warming.

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chrisco255
The existence of fossil evidence of human civilization in glacial areas
indicates these areas were warmer in the past, when the glaciers didn't exist.
It underscores the cyclical nature of climate change.

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devbas
Cant read this article, Medium shows me to signup for an account.

~~~
mkl
That always pops up for me, but I can just close it by clicking outside the
box or clicking the x in the top right. Do those not work for you?

~~~
egdod
Those always used to work. But now I’m getting an uncloseable popup:

You've completed your member preview for this month, but when you sign up for
a free Medium account, you get one more story

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egdod
> You've completed your member preview for this month, but when you sign up
> for a free Medium account, you get one more story.

Fuck Medium.

~~~
Plyphon_
Incognito gets you around this. I know it's beside the point. However
incognito is the laziest of bypasses to a subscription-wall which tells me
Medium aren't really behind it as a strategy anyway.

~~~
1propionyl
The real problem is that websites can still even tell whether or not you're in
incognito mode.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
Lately I've been using Forget Me for Chrome.
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/forget-me-clean-
hi...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/forget-me-clean-
history-c/gekpdemielcmiiiackmeoppdgaggjgda) One click wipes cookies, history,
and local and session storage for the current site. It works on the NYT and
everything else I've tried so far.

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indeks
Well, that's what you can expect to happen if an ancient ice melts - stuff
just comes out.

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vkaku
I hope they find Megatron...

~~~
taneq
And not The Thing...

~~~
mhd
or ancient sandwiches

~~~
m3chars
and not ancient sand witches

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tempguy9999
Filled up with cute clipart. Few images of the artifacts themselves.

Possibly the ultimate failure in basic interface design. Thanks, morons.

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fullstop
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis!

[https://i.imgur.com/G1vIYO0.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/G1vIYO0.jpg)

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trox
I often get into arguments with people not believing in the consequences of
climate change, especially when it's about the melting glaciers. People reason
that finding ancient objects hints to low ice levels at numerous times in the
last millennias. My reaction is to reason about the implications of melting
ice (ex. sea level rise), which I cannot really back up with facts. Is there
another way to argue about this?

~~~
motorogo
You can absolutely back up concerns about sea level rise with facts:
[https://skepticalscience.com/sea-level-
rise.htm](https://skepticalscience.com/sea-level-rise.htm)

Some just choose to ignore them.

~~~
1_player
Wow, that site managed to hang my Brave tab on a 10-core, 64 GB RAM machine.
Is it folding proteins on the background or something?

~~~
motorogo
Maybe you need to check what else is running. I am using a Chromebook and it
loads in seconds.

