激荡监督的正能量 

In the Arctic, where snow covers the ground for much of the year, permafrost has long preserved the region’s archaeological record. Acting as a natural deep freeze, it has kept bones, wooden artefacts, and even traces of human skin and hair in extraordinary condition – sometimes for millennia. But now, the permafrost is thawing, and with it, the stories it once held are melting away. 

In South Greenland, the very region where Erik the Red, the Norwegian explorer who founded the island’s first European settlement in the 10^th century, famously settled, archaeologists are already facing the consequences of rising ground temperatures. The recovery of well-preserved organic materials at sites from the Norse settlers is becoming increasingly rare – and what is exhumed is often in a state of advanced or complete degradation. 

Climate change is accelerating the loss of archaeological sites and buried remains worldwide. While sea levels have naturally fluctuated over time, human-induced climate change is causing an acceleration in coastal erosion due to rising sea levels and an increase in the number of storms. This poses a serious threat not only to coastal communities but also to countless archaeological sites.

Coastal erosion can indeed lead to the gradual disappearance of sites over several decades or cause their destruction in a single event. In 2005, for example, a large part of a prehistoric settlement on Baile Sear in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland was destroyed when the sandy coastline retreated by up to 50 metres overnight – causing structural collapse, exposing archaeological deposits, and scattering cultural material along the beach.

Sometimes the primary threat is not the excess of water but its absence. In the wetlands of northern Europe, longer and more extreme droughts lead to lower water tables and the drying out of saturated soils, exposing organic materials to oxygen and speeding up microbial decay. 

At the wetland Stone Age site of Ager?d in Sweden, decades of drainage and climate-related drying have already degraded the site’s preservation conditions. The lack of water also increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires, posing a serious threat to heritage sites. The devastating fires that ravaged Greece in the summer of 2007 had a very serious impact on the site of Olympia, threatening to destroy the museum and archaeological area of this World Heritage site.

These are just a few examples of how climate change is impacting archaeology – many more exist, with both immediate and long-term consequences. The scale is staggering. In the Arctic alone, where warming is occurring twice as fast as the global average, over 180,000 archaeological sites are registered. We are confronting a scenario in which entire landscapes are subject to system-wide environmental processes, placing thousands of sites at risk simultaneously.

Paradoxically, as ice melts, forests burn and coastlines erode, new archaeological sites and materials are being uncovered. Climate change is revealing the past even as it destroys it. In the high mountain zones of western Mongolia, such as Tsengel Khairkhan, retreating glaciers have exposed ancient hunting sites – frozen for millennia – revealing relics such as ropes, animal remains, and tools used in high-altitude hunting. In Wyoming (United States), wildfires are estimated to have uncovered hundreds of previously undocumented sites. 

While such discoveries provide rare insights into past ways of life, the window for recovery is brief. Once exposed, artefacts are often fragile and prone to rapid degradation unless quickly stabilized and preserved.

Yet heritage management systems are rarely designed for speed. In the context of climate change, where natural processes drive destruction rather than construction, no dedicated funding streams or mitigation programs currently exist. 

Traditional policies have emphasized in situ preservation. But today, it is fair to question whether existing management frameworks are equipped to meet the scale and urgency of this crisis. We must ask: What information do we need to gather from these threatened sites before it's too late? What actions are required to recover them? And how long will the window of opportunity remain open?

Heritage professionals and policymakers face difficult choices. Which sites can we save? Which must we let go? To make informed, transparent decisions, we must understand where and when climate impacts will occur and what kinds of archaeological resources are most at risk. Yet predicting how different types of materials will respond remains a formidable challenge. It is a challenge archaeologists must accept, and one that demands interdisciplinary collaboration. 

Importantly, efforts to preserve archaeological sites can also contribute to climate adaptation. Wetland sites, for example, are not only cultural archives but also carbon stores. When they dry out or are disturbed, they release greenhouse gases. Preserving them is not just a heritage concern – it is a sustainability imperative.

Despite growing recognition of these links, archaeology is still largely absent from global climate policy. Cultural heritage connects people across time and space and can give meaning to scientific data by anchoring it in human experience. In a world grappling with environmental loss, that connection may be more vital than ever.