Race Against Time as Climate Change Devours Ancient Archaeological Sites in Canada

It is now a race against time to discover and try to save historic sites that are being endangered by climate change. Can archaeologists preserve Canada’s history before it’s too late?

We’ve almost all wished for a time machine at one point or another in our lives. If we could only go back and see what really happened (or, more usually, right a wrong we may have committed). Archaeology, paleontology, geology and related sciences; these are our modern time machines, or at least the best we have for now. It is through these research fields that we discover and revisit the past. But times are changing. As climate change affects the environment in Canada, it puts archaeolgical sites and discoveries at risk. What happens when time runs out for archaeologists, and our history is destroyed?

Cairn found atop a hill near Resolute Bay, Nunavut. (Dave Brosha/CC BY-SA 3.0)

New Discoveries Reveal Ancient Times

‘Time travelers’ (or archaeologists) such as Jennifer Herkes, Heritage Manager for the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon, know first-hand the excitement of encountering history. This month, scientists in the north found a remarkably intact dart lost by an indigenous hunter 1,000 years ago.

Herkes told CBC News: