The Archaeology and Paleoecology of Alpine Ice Patches: A Global Perspective

At a recent conference called Frozen Pasts, held in Trondheim, Norway, in October 2010, presentations by researchers from five continents addressed a broad sweep of human history and culture, including the archaeological remains of caribou or reindeer hunting preserved in ice patches in North America and Norway; stratified Paleo-Eskimo middens in Greenland permafrost; First World War archaeological remains melting from snow patches in the Italian Alps; the conservation of Scott’s hut in Antarctica; permafrost burials of Iron Age Scythians in the Altai Mountains; and the discovery of Inca mummies in the Andes of Argentina. Linked only by their setting in the cryosphere, that part of the Earth’s surface where water is frozen for at least part of the year in the form of snow, ice, or permafrost (Slaymaker and Kelly, 2007), the papers also served to catalogue the impact that global warming is having on archaeological remains. Permafrost, alpine snow patches, glaciers, and other components of the cryosphere are melting at alarming rates. The impact of these changes—altered regional climate patterns, rising sea levels, and catastrophic slope collapses from thawing permafrost, among others— are putting heritage resources at risk, requiring urgent action from archaeologists and other heritage specialists. By sharing their experiences at conferences like Frozen Pasts, archaeologists and other researchers are cataloguing these impacts while working to define a new sub-discipline: archaeology of the terrestrial cryosphere. It is in this spirit that we present this special supplement of the journal Arctic, which brings together 12 articles in the emerging field of alpine ice patch archaeology from North America and Europe. Linked by their association with either caribou or reindeer hunting or human travel in alpine environments, these articles provide a fascinating perspective on the cryogenically preserved artifacts and biological specimens being revealed by the melting of perennial snow and ice in high alpine settings. The first six papers present the findings of the Northwest Territories (NWT) Ice Patch Study, an International Polar Year (IPY) Project funded by the Government of Canada between 2006 and 2010. IPY is the largest-ever program of scientific research focused on the Arctic and Antarctic regions (Government of Canada, 2011), and its results are leading to significant advances in our understanding of the effects of climate change on the circumpolar world and its people. The Government of Canada’s IPY Program envisioned an intense “pulse” of multidisciplinary research focused on two main themes: 1) climate change impacts and adaptation and 2) the health and well-being of northern Canadians. The research design advanced by the IPY Program encouraged partnerships across disciplines in order to investigate these themes in their full complexity. This approach is reflected in these papers, which explore the human, ecological, and physical dimensions of alpine ice patches in the Selwyn Mountains of the NWT. In the first paper of the volume, Andrews et al. report on the results of archaeological investigations of alpine ice patches in the Selwyn Mountains. Well-preserved hunting weapons and biological specimens collected from ice patches in this region provide a long-term record of caribou hunting by precontact peoples. The paper offers a potential contribution to future archaeological work on ice patch sites in circumpolar alpine regions through its description of methods—a combination of remote sensing and other modeling criteria—used to detect alpine areas in the NWT with the potential for ice patch archaeological sites. In the second paper, Andrews et al. describe the important role that the traditional knowledge of Shuhtagot’ine Elders played in the interpretation of ice patch archaeological sites and artifacts. They contextualize their discussion with a description of the NWT Ice Patch Study outreach program, which provided several forums for sharing knowledge throughout the project. As part of all IPY-funded projects in Canada, outreach programs fostered meaningful community involvement across the Canadian North and will surely be remembered as one of IPY’s greatest legacies. Conducted in partnership with the Tulita Dene Band and Shuhtagot’ine Elders, the NWT Ice Patch Study included an ambitious community outreach program that brought educational products and benefits to all participants. The next three papers explore the physical and ecological dimensions of alpine ice patches in the Selwyn Mountains. Meulendyk et al. use ground-penetrating radar and ice coring to determine the internal structure of two ice patches. They develop a model of ice patch formation and discuss potential for the use of ice patches to reconstruct regional paleoenvironmental conditions. The fact that ice patches are perennially frozen and are relatively static features (i.e., compared to glaciers) accounts for their ability to preserve even the most fragile components of ancient hunting weapons. Galloway et al. evaluate the use of caribou dung preserved in alpine ice patches to reconstruct paleoecological conditions in alpine environments. Their analysis of pollen and spores trapped in caribou dung indicates that vegetation communities in the vicinity of the ice patches have remained largely unchanged for the last 5000 years. In a similar manner, plant fragments document the

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