Melting Ice in Canada Reveals Ancient Artifacts

November 28, 2023

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA—According to a report in The Miami Herald, archaeologists have uncovered various ancient, and perishable, artifacts that span more than 7,000 years among melting patches of ice in British Columbia's Mount Edziza Provincial Park. The volcanic landscape of the park near the present-day Canada–U.S. border has been home to the Tahltan, one of the country’s Indigenous First Nations peoples, who continue to use the mountains as seasonal hunting grounds as they have for centuries. While scientists had previously located nearby obsidian quarries and artifacts in the park, the discovery revealed some 56 items, alongside a large array of obsidian artifacts, in nine patches of melting ice. They include a 3,000-year-old pair of sticks wrapped in animal hide, a 2,000-year-old birch bark container, a 5,300-year-old antler ice pick, and a 6,200-year-old stitched animal hide, which may have been part of a moccasin-style boot. The finds have been taken to a museum for study and climate-controlled conservation. For more on the archaeology of British Columbia and the first people to migrate along the coast to the Americas, go to “Coast over Corridor.”