Tuesday, 9 September 2008

Glacier melts, 5000-yr secret out

BERN: Some 5,000 years ago a
prehistoric person trod high up in what is now the Swiss Alps, wear goat
leather pants, leather shoes and armed with a stem and arrows.



The
unremarkable journey through the Schnidejoch pass, a high-flown trail 2,756 metres
above sea level, has been a boon to scientists only it would never have emerged
if climate change were non melting the nearby glacier.



So far, 300
objects dating as far back as the Neolithic Age - approximately 4000 BC in Europe - to
the by and by Bronze and Iron Ages and the Medieval geological era have been found in the
site's former icefields. "We recognise now that the discoveries on Schnidejoch are
the oldest of this kind ever made in the Alps," said Albert Hafner, an adept
with the archaeology armed service in Bern. They accept allowed researchers not only if to
piece together snapshots of life way indorse when, but also to shed light-colored on
clime fluctuations in the past times 6,five hundred years.



"For us, the site
itself is the most important find because we possess this correlational statistics between
clime change and archaeological objects," Hafner said.



"We know
that people were solely able to walk on this situation when it was relatively warm,"
aforesaid Martin Grosjean, executive director of a national meshwork called Swiss
Climate Research. "When it was too cold, the glacier advanced and it was not a
passable route."



Scientists have long known there were periods of
warmer weather but the artefacts allowed them to identify the exact years, when
the site would have been passable on foot. According to Grosjean, such data
could facilitate sharpen forecasts for the future by taking into account patterns of
natural temperature wavering.



The trove was ascertained after two
hikers noticed a unusual piece of wood lying on some stones in 2003. It turned
forbidden to be a shakiness - a case for arrows - made from birch bark and dating as far
back as 3,000BC.



Many of the most valuable items may have originated
from matchless ill-fated person, probably carrying the quiver, bow and arrows and
clothed in leather trousers and shoes. "We think the mortal may have been killed
during an accident because there were several objects from the same period found
on the internet site," said Hafner.


More info