86 MARCH/APRIL 2022FISHERMEN’S
FRIENDS
Resembling their
modern equivalents
used to fish today,
ivory fishing lures
(above) were among
the centuries-old
artifacts found at the
Nunalleq site.
In Quinhagak, the modern Yup’ik village just
four miles from Nunalleq, changes brought by
the weird weather are a common topic of con-
versation. “Twenty years ago the elders began to
say the ground was sinking,” says Warren Jones,
president of Qanirtuuq, the Yup’ik corporation
that owns and manages the community’s prop-
erty. “The past 10 years or so it’s been so bad
everybody’s noticed. We’re boating in Febru-
ary. That’s supposed to be the coldest month
of the year.”
The Arctic wasn’t always like this, but global
climate change is now hammering Earth’s polar
regions. The result is a disastrous loss of artifacts
from little-known prehistoric cultures—like
the one at Nunalleq—all along Alaska’s shores
and beyond. A massive thaw is exposing trac-
es of past peoples and civilizations across the
northern regions of the globe—from Neolithicbows and arrows in Switzerland to hiking staffs
from the Viking age in Norway and lavishly ap-
pointed tombs of Scythian nomads in Siberia.
So many sites are in danger that archaeologists
are beginning to specialize in the rescue of once
frozen artifacts.
In coastal Alaska archaeological sites are now
threatened by a one-two punch. The first blow:
average temperatures that have risen more than
three degrees Fahrenheit in the past half cen-
tury. As one balmy day follows another, the per-
mafrost is thawing almost everywhere. When
archaeologists began digging at Nunalleq in
2009, they hit frozen soil about 18 inches be-
low the surface of the tundra. Today the ground
is thawed three feet down. That means master-
fully carved artifacts of caribou antler, driftwood,
bone, and walrus ivory are emerging from the
deep freeze that has preserved them in perfect
condition. If not rescued, they immediately be-
gin to deteriorate.
The knockout blow: rising seas. Since 1900
the global level of oceans has risen about eight
inches, a figure that experts believe will continue
to increase. It’s a direct threat to coastal sites
such as Nunalleq, which is doubly vulnerable toA MASSIVE THAW IS EXPOSING TRACES OF PAST
CIVILIZATIONS. SO MANY SITES ARE IN DANGER
THAT ARCHAEOLOGISTS ARE SPECIALIZING IN THE
RESCUE OF ONCE FROZEN ARTIFACTS.ERIKA LARSEN/NG IMAGE COLLECTION