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posted by martyb on Thursday May 28 2020, @03:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the take-a-hike! dept.

Melting ice reveals an ancient, once-thriving trade route:

Earlier this year, Antiquity published an article about an ancient mountain pass uncovered on Lendbreen, a melting ice patch in the central mountain range of the Loomseggen Ridge in Norway. This retreating ice patch exposed lichen-free areas of bedrock where artifacts have been found simply lying on the bare ground. The dated artifacts indicate that the mountain pass was used from around AD 300-1500, but that its usage increased around AD 1000 during the Viking Age. This was a time of elevated travel, trade, and urbanization in Northern Europe.

[...] The findings on Lendbreen are varied and contain numerous types of transportation-related items including the remains of sleds, walking sticks, horse-snowshoes, and horse bones. They also contain many everyday items, including a woven tunic and a mitten, textile rags, and a collection of shoes made from hide. Most notably, archaeologists found ruins of a stone shelter near the top of the ice patch, indicating that this was a significant travel route.

Journal Reference
Lars Pilø , Espen Finstad, James H. Barrett. Crossing the ice: an Iron Age to medieval mountain pass at Lendbreen, Norway [open], Antiquity (DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2020.2)

Also at: columbia.edu.

Melting glaciers have been a boon for high-elevation archaeology, because artifacts have been well preserved in the ice.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @07:18AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @07:18AM (#1000077)

    We're blazing on through that local maximum! Wooh1! Fuck yeah!!

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  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @09:28AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @09:28AM (#1000111)

    It was vastly hotter in times prior. You're looking at a sort of local max on a short time scale of a local min on a long time scale.

    And this is really the problem. I think it's likely that we're contributing to the current increasing trend in temps, but determining exactly how much is impossible. The assumption is that the baseline is no change, but that's obviously wrong given that the planet goes through regular cooling and heating cycles and we are currently in a heating cycle that started long before industry even existed.

    So even if there were literally no humans in existence, Earth would still be heating up today. The only question, of course, is how much - and to what degree are we changing that. Even the rapidity of the change does not provide much insight since, once again, it's hardly unprecedented. This is kind of the interesting but unfortunate things about being such a relatively new species. People tens of thousands of years from now will have no real difficulty knowing what's going on, not only because of what would be unimaginably better technology, but also because even in cases where they can't resolve things they'd have extensive longterm information to draw on without having the rely on the rather imprecise measurements we use in working out what happened in the past.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @10:40AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @10:40AM (#1000119)

      >> The only question, of course, is how much - and to what degree are we changing that.

      According to the Gospel of St Greta: not at all and 100%, so it's entirely your fault and you have to stop stealing her future.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by lentilla on Thursday May 28 2020, @05:13PM (2 children)

      by lentilla (1770) on Thursday May 28 2020, @05:13PM (#1000199)

      It is the rate of change that is concerns us.

      This annotated graph [xkcd.com] sums the situation up beautifully.

      There is no argument that Earth has experienced cycles of hotter periods and colder periods. The rapid warming coinciding with the Industrial Revolution is definitely abnormal.

      I think it's likely that we're contributing to the current increasing trend in temps

      It's certain that humans are making a significant and rapid change to Earth's climate.

      Even the rapidity of the change does not provide much insight since, once again, it's hardly unprecedented.

      I categorically disagree.

      [future humans will] have extensive longterm information to draw on [...]

      We already have pretty good information. Not perfect; that is true; but enough to clearly say: "the Earth is warming up much faster than ever before in geologic history, and it's our fault". As to whether this is good or bad may be a topic for debate but it is already causing problems for this generation and will most certainly be front and centre for the following generations.

      Anthropomorphic global warming is not something to panic about - but we do need to accept responsibility, and wind back our worst excesses to give future generations a fighting chance of coping with the inevitable physical and geo-political changes that are going to happen.

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @06:04PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @06:04PM (#1000217)

        Here [wikipedia.org] is the geologic temperature record. Humanity has lived through *vastly* warmer and colder periods. Note the warming trend in the natural cycles, literally before humans even existed as well. Since that graph uses a non-linear record on the times, it can be unclear on exactly how rapid things happen. Here [wikipedia.org] is a graph with a linear time scale. Here [nasa.gov] is one where the temperatures are normalized but nonetheless still end up with periods of stupid fast warming that is still not well understood.

        You have, in the geologic record, things like 12C changes over *extremely* brief periods of time. And humans were alive, and obviously thrived. And this was during a time when our technology amounted to smashing rocks together to get pointy things to go kill other things and each other with. Now a days atmospheric scrubbing is already a viable solution. Recent research [digitaljournal.com] puts a total cost of atmospheric scrubbing at $94-$232 per ton. Fossil CO2 emissions in 2017 were 37 megatons. That's a total cost of about 4% of the world economy - likely far less than what we'll have spent on corona after all is said and done.

        But the cool thing is that it gets cheaper each year not only because of technology innovations but because the economy is growing far faster than our emissions are which results in a reduced relative cost each year. Within a few decades, you're going to be looking at like a 0.1% tax to pay for scrubbing, if necessary. And that's assuming no technological innovations, which there will be - and it's necessary, which it probably won't be.

      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday May 28 2020, @11:29PM

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday May 28 2020, @11:29PM (#1000317)

        There is no point in presenting evidence to these sorts of A/Cs, they have absorbed the message that climate change is a hoax, and there is no point arguing with them about it.

        Their beliefs trump your science.