Shocking, Scandalous New Evidence of Climate Change -- Leaving No Doubt as to Neo-Con's Glacial Melting, Which Reveals Unusual Neolithic "Finds" in Hitler's Object of Envy
I'm trying Grump's idea for headlines... Actually, while certainly scandalous, and absolutely shocking, the Neo-Cons have little to do with the Neo-Lithic...
While measured glacial melting has increased more than double, since 1999, archaeologists are finding more evidence of neolithic and Roman life, thanks to the ravages of nature.
Glacial melting, as recorded by the United Nations Environment Program, has increased from and average of 30 cm from 1990-1999, to more than 1.5 meters since 2006. ( BBC News, Special Report ) Glaciers over nine continents were measured, and the scientists report that there is "no end in sight".
Some of the most affected glaciers are located in the Alps and the Pyrenees mountain ranges in Europe. (See picture at right.)
But, one group of scientists are finding the glacial melt a bit of good luck. Archaeologists are finding even more well-preserved evidence of early Neolithic life-- up to and including Roman Times. ( BBC News, Science and Environment )
Many people know of the spectacular find of Oetzi, the Neolithic hunter whose body was found near the Italy/German border in the Alps in 1991. Oetzi lived about 3, 300 years ago. After a meal in a meadow, he climbed the mountain's glacier, and was shot in the back. Latest findings have determined that he died fairly quickly, as the arrow pierced a major artery beneath his shoulder blade.
Now, additional dramatic findings have been made in Switzerland, fueling speculation that there was more human habitation in the alpine glaciers than previously thought. A couple of hikers found an unusual piece of wood while hiking on the Schnidejoch glacier in Switzerland. Subsequent carbon dating revealed that the arrow and birchbark quiver were from about 3000 bc.
Additional archaeological expeditions to the site have yielded leather, leggings, shoes, and a trouser leg, even a fragments of a wooden bowl from 4500 bc, which is the oldest "find" of the Alps.
What fascinates the scientists is that the ages of these artifacts corresponds with the dates already speculated by scientists as times of unusual warming in the past-- that correlate with changes in the orbital patter of the earth and the sun. Scientists have speculated that these warming periods allowed parts of the mountain chains to be more readily available to humans. If more artifacts can be found, scientists feel that they can study the normal glacial fluctuations that have occurred during the past 7,000 years.
Roman coins found on the site, indicate that this area was also a trade route during Roman times-- only 2,000 years ago. (While this is a long time in human terms, it's nothing in geological terms.)
What does this mean for us, in our angst over climate change? A quote from the article puts this into a more historic perspective, as geologic evidence is unusually sparse:
... what we do know is that the climate has fluctuated throughout history; in the past the driving force for the changes was the Earth's orbital pattern, now the driving force is green house gas emissions."
For Martin Grosjean, the leather items found on the Schnidejoch, dated at over 5,000 years old, are proof, if any more were needed, that the Earth is now warming up.
"The leather is the jewel among the finds," he says. "If leather is exposed to the weather, to sun, wind and rain, it disintegrates almost immediately.
The fact that we still find these 5,000-year-old pieces of leather tells us they were protected by the ice all this time, and that the glaciers have never been smaller than in the year 2003 and the years following."
In the great climate change debate, these findings "fit" right in with other scientific observations made in Canada's Yukon territory and the Norwegian ice fields. From an Archaeological and human point of view, the data indicates that early man was a lot more at home in the cooler alpine climates than we previously thought.
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Well, I'm taking a tip from Grump's list of suggested headline words...
3rd try-- if no one is interested in this well-researched piece, I'll give up!!!
Good article, Dowser. Not many people appreciate the scale of time that is dealt with in geologic terms. I think it is important tounderstandat least this onesentence:
"The fact that we still find these 5,000-year-old pieces of leather tells us they were protected by the ice all this time, and that the glaciers have never been smaller than in the year 2003 and the years following."
LOL! Good one!
My question is how they got there? Were people on the glacier, or was it melted about this much, 4,500 years ago?
I don't know...
Hey, thanks for coming by-- I worked hard on this, and it appeared that no one was interested!
Thanks so much, dear Broliver, for coming to see it, and leave a comment-- You're a good friend!
Yes, that is a key sentence. I wonder, though, were people walking in front of the glacier when a wall of snow/ice fell on them, or were they up on top, running around. I mean, the pieces are barely deformed-- it seems that they weren't churned up much within the glacier...
When drilling in northern IN, in the Teays River Valley, up at Marion, we drilled up layers of wood-- real, splintery, barely carbonized wood. Covered up by a glacier very quickly-- even bits of leaves would come up. Even if was just Wisconsinan in glacial stage, it was still about 8,000 to 10,000 years old.
I saved a bunch of it in my mother's freezer. Of course she got mad at me, and threw it away . How nice.
I wish we knew more!
Hey, Dowser, I just now found this article. This is some fascinating stuff. Humans are amazing creatures and I am not surprised to find that they may have been traipsing around on the glaciers. Eskimos live in some pretty harsh conditions, too. Unfortunately, we don't know what the glaciers looked like 5000 years ago. What a puzzle this presents.
Ha ha ha. Thanks for the outrageous and startling headline.
Don't worry about the responses. It's Sunday, after all, and it's usually slow on Sunday, I think.
These are some interesting links, too. Thanks for the article. I love stuff like this. One of my minors at the university was anthro. I wanted to major in anthro but I knew I would end up starving to death.
LOVE you, dear Grump!
Well, I tried a shocking headline, and sure enough, got 2 responses! Yippee!
I find this stuff fascinating-- always have. I took one anthropology course, and was so very enthusiastic at the beginning, but like most of my college classes, they managed to suck every last bit of enthusiasm I had about it out within about 2 weeks... My professor had these jug ears, and talked in a soft monotone... Plus, we never talked about people-- ever. I thought that PEOPLE was what anthropology was about! UGH!
I got on the BBC site and went to town, reading everything in site. (At least most people can live with it being "unbiased" as far as American Politics...
Thanks so much, dear friend, for coming by to see me!
Love your headline! Mal would be proud of you!
The earth is most definitely on a warming trend. Even theAntarctic ice is melting now, which had not been doing so in the past. The big question is whether or not we are the primary cause. My inclination is to think so, but since we can't put the earth into a test tube and run some controlled experiments well then we have to take our best scientific guesses.
I would say that we should err on the side of bringing down our greenhouse gases. But this planet is facing far more dangers than that. The krill and plankton levels are down in the ocean. If they go, ocean life goes and if that goes, everything goes. Yes, Soylant Green is people. Sometimes, Sci-Fi just becomes Sci.
BTW nice Roman.
Romans, friends, countrymen... lend me your legs!
Everything is a mess-- and CO2 levels are rising... Look toward a great Carboniferous Age again, soon! But there will be so many people, pooping in our water supplies, there will be no room for plants, right?
I, too, believe we should err on the side of cutting pollution and greenhouse gases. And protecting water supplies. And treating our own waste before we dump into streams. Etc. SIGH!
I thought this was fascinating on two levels! Climate and archaeology! Not to mention the eye candy...
Thanks, dear Perrie, for both featuring this and for coming by to see me!
Yeah, me too. Why I put it in quotes.
Thanks so much for coming by to see the article! I really appreciate it-- I had to go a little far on the headline to draw attention!
Maybe people are getting tired of bombastic headlines?
Grump,
Before this article had a different title and no one came. Then Dowser changed it to this one. Apparently, people do like it, despite the moaning andgroaningto the contrary.
You may have noticed that I have been working with folks hereabouts to teach them how to properly create bombastic attention grabbing headlines. Dowser is learning well and trying out The Grump's techniques. I have no idea how good the techniques are, but they are worth a humorous try.
That's what I was thinking... And sure enough! Traffic!
The more outrageous the better, it seems. Hee hee hee. Hey, whatever it takes.
How did that money get there? Curious about what else they know or found. Science is bad at making a decision especially when talking to the US. Are they claiming that the ice has shifted this rapidly before? We know there has been big changes on this earth but it was never related to man before. Guess I am more curious about the impact like to our oceans.
Thank you so very much for coming by! I really appreciate your comment!
Me, too! I want to know MORE!!!
It's my money. I dropped it. Give it back.
LOL!
My question, were they picking their way across the glacier, which moves and changes all the time, or were they in front of the glacier? If they were in front of the glacier, then the glaciers have been this small before. If they were picking their way across, then the edge of the glacier could have been anywhere...
Well you clearly haven't been watching Spartacus:War of the Damned.
Miss Dowser...great read! There are still cool things to be found for those who look. Just think about all those artifacts that were lost on glaciers thousands of years ago that eventually are just dropped into the oceans as glaciers move toward the sea.
Your research efforts are appreciated.
Dear Timey, thank you so much!
There is still plenty of stuff to find-- it just depends on where you look!
Ah have NO doubt bout thaa Miss Dowser...this is the first "Time" in ages thaa ah've had the opportunity to jus browse and pollinate other articles. Ah've had a challenge jus keepin up wit the stuff goin on in ma own place. Course ah AM abit partial ta YOU ma lady. Ah try ta stay in touch best ah can...
Much love to you, dear Timey-- you're a wonderful friend! Take care!!!
Could it be that there was no glacier at that time, at least not in that area? I love this stuff too! Great article Dowser.
Good to see you, its been awhile!Still trying to figure this place out. 
I'm just so glad that you're here!!! I was typing out my friend's list, and saw your name!!! I've missed you!
I wonder that, too, about the glaciers. If these things were found at the edge of the snow, could they have been on the ground, and churned up when the glacier went over? I wish I knew more about glaciers-- I've never really seen one. There's just not a lot of ice in KY...
I'm really glad to see you here-- and hope all is well for you! If you need any help, just let me know! (You can find me on the Member's page, or click on my name at the top of the article.) Please send me a friend request!
We have glaciers here in Wyoming! ..... at least for now. Not much snow this year and the rivers are really low. That really worries me. I just read an article that said 28,000 rivers in China have dried up because of industry and development. Pretty sad. It was pretty warm here this winter too, although its trying to make up for it now! I had 2* the last 2 mornings and we had 30" of snow and 75 mph winds on the pass 2 days ago! Today its up to 40*. Thank goodness I've got lots of summer fire wood too!
The weather changes here pretty quick. Not unusual to see snow flurry's on the 4th of July!
I am trying to figure out how to seed an article on here. I'm not good with computers
. I really disliked the new newsvine format, too disconnected and boring. Not much of a public discussion when everyone is seperated into groups. I'll be in touch.
I love you, dear gramora!
I didn't get to see any, all those years ago when I was in Wyoming, unless they were off in the distance, and I didn't know what I was seeing!
Golly, your winter seems like it will never end, I'm sure!
I'm not good with computers, either. I still haven't figured that out, yet-- (how to seed). I open a new tab, usually, find the article, and cut and paste it into an article here. Or talk about the article, and put a link in to the article's location.
Much love to you!
Great Article Dowser! I would have never made it during that time. I love the heat too much. I just want to wear a pair of shorts. I've been known to wear a coat and pair of shorts. I'm not sure if I just hate washing clothes that much or just like to show off my legs. LOL.
At the peak of the last glacial cycle, giant ice sheets a mile thick covered half of North America.
What is an ice age?
An ice age is a period of timeusually millions or tens of millions of yearswhen vast glaciers, called ice sheets, cover much of the Earths land surface. Several ice ages have occurred throughout our planet's history. The latest ice age began about 2.5 million years ago. During this time, giant ice sheets have advanced and retreated many times in North America and Europe.
Recent cycles of advancing and retreating ice sheets have occurred every 100,000 years. Each cycle consists of a long, generally cold period during which the ice sheets slowly reach their maximum extent over tens of thousands of years, and a relatively short warm period during which the ice sheets rapidly retreat.
We are now in a warm period that has lasted more than 10,000 years, which is longer than many of the previous warm intervals. If the pattern of glacial cycles still holds true, we should be about due for the beginning of the next cold phase. Indeed, several hundred years ago, global temperat ures began decreasing during a period known as the Little Ice Age.
Over the last century, however, average global temperatures have instead started to rise. Scientists have recently concluded that much of the recent warming is due to the release of greenhouse gases from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels. A sobering possibility is that continued human-caused global warming could disrupt or override the natural climate cycle of the ice age.
<<Back to Ice Age in Depth home
Great information and thanks for putting it in here!
Take care!
There are a few smallglaciers on the Tetons and the rest are in the Wind River Mts. I was excited when I discovered them. There have been lots of great discovery's here, even dinosaurs! Dead ones of course!! HA!Lots of hot springs too. What surprised me the most was seeingseagulls and pelicans! Just never thought about them beingin the Rocky Mountains. We have one of the biggest herds of Big Horn Sheep here too. In the winter you can go just a few miles from my house and find small herds of them, and they don't seem to be afraid of people, they wander all around the truck. I've gotten some great pic of them.
Yes the winters are long here. We usually get our firstsnow in late Sept or midOct. and its not uncommon to have our last snow in June! I'm at 7,000 ft here inDubois ( population 950 )but this area is called the "bananna belt"because we have milder temps and less snow than surrounding areas. The Indians used to winter here. I am a few miles from the Shoshone/Arappaho Reservation.Plus, we have low humidity so cold temps don't feel as cold as they are back east. Once in a while it gets down to -40* but that doesn't feel any colder than -30* HA! Average winter temps are around 36*.I love it here but I do miss having a big garden. Our growing season is about 64 days max! I miss corn and tomatoes!
You should plan another trip out here!
Love you too
I would LOVE to see Wyoming again!
I bet I saw a glacier and didn't know it. We drove up from Colorado to Laramie, to visit the USGS, east to Cheyanne, north to Sheridan, up to Virginia City, MT, down to Cody, over the Yellowstone, south to the Gross Ventre mountains, just north of Jackson Hole, and stayed for a week on Goose Creek at the Goose Wing Ranch. The Tetons were framed in the window every morning-- what MAGNIFICENT scenery!
THEN, we drove north to Yellowstone, over to Idaho up at Quake Lake, and down to Utah, turned around came back, down from Yellowstone to the Wind River Canyon, and took the road to Riverton and down to Rawlings? then over to Cheyanne, back to CO, and make the loooong trek home to KY.
I loved the mountain sheep-- the moose, the elk, everything we saw was WONDERFUL!
They had 30 frost-free days a year where we were on Goose Creek, (I can't imagine such a thing, seeing as how it gets hot here in May, sometimes...), and it snowed 7" on the 4th of July.
FUN!!!
If I ever make it out your way, we're going to have to get coffee or something!