In the Arctic, a 300-year-old cemetery is threatened by global warming

It was the 17th century in Svalbard, in the midst of the Little Ice Age. Young European men braved the cold and storms to hunt the bowhead whale.

And unfortunately, this grueling labor in extreme conditions, combined with malnutrition, claimed the lives of many of them, who were buried right there on the spot, according to National Geographic. The Likneset site, nicknamed “Carcass Point” by the Norwegians, is home to more than 200 graves. Analysis of bones exhumed between 1980 and 2016 reveals that these men, most of whom were between the ages of 20 and 34, suffered from scurvy and degenerative joint diseases. These whalers came mainly from the Netherlands and Norway.

Preserved by the ice, these remains and their period clothing are now deteriorating due to global warming and the thawing of permafrost, which allows oxygen and water to penetrate the shallow graves.“What’s unique about these whalers is that they’re not preserved anywhere else,” says Lise Loktu, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research. In a study published this spring in the journal PLOS One, she demonstrates the extent to which these remains are deteriorating due to climate change.“The permafrost itself keeps the material stable,” she explains, while the researchers note that these once-frozen sites “are now undergoing rapid and irreversible change.”

Act quickly, before they disappear for good

The entire Arctic is affected by this accelerated degradation.“Climate change is significantly accelerating the destruction of Arctic archaeological sites,” confirms George Hambrecht, an anthropologist at the University of Maryland, adding that the crux of the problem lies in deciding what to prioritize for preservation.

Extreme weather, Svalbard’s isolation, and predators: given these challenges, preservation efforts remain particularly complex and costly, requiring rapid excavation before this heritage disappears completely and permanently.