Abstract
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average with overlooked consequences for the preservation of the rich cultural and environmental records that have been stored for millennia in archaeological deposits. In this article, we investigate the oxic degradation of different types of organic archaeological deposits located in different climatic zones in West and South Greenland. The rate of degradation is investigated based on measurements of O2 consumption, CO2 production and heat production at different temperatures and water contents. Overall, there is good consistency between the three methods. However, at one site the, O2 consumption is markedly higher than the CO2 production, highlighting the importance of combining several measures when assessing the vulnerability of organic deposits. The archaeological deposits are highly vulnerable to degradation regardless of age, depositional and environmental conditions. Degradation rates of the deposits are more sensitive to increasing temperatures than natural soils and the process is accompanied by a high microbial heat production that correlates significantly with their total carbon content. We conclude that organic archaeology in the Arctic is facing a critical challenge that requires international action.
Highlights
Production and micro calorimetric heat production in depth-specific samples from the study sites
As far as we know, this is the first time these three methods are used in combination to study archaeological materials and the results presented here provide a unique methodological insight that may be useful whenever assessing the vulnerability of organic archaeological deposits
The four archaeological sites included in this study, Qajaa, Sandnes, Kangeq, and Igaliku, are among the most valuable sites in Greenland and all contain well-preserved organic materials (Fig. 1 and Supplementary Figs S1–7)
Summary
Sites, monitoring and sampling.The northern site of Qajaa is located 18 km south-east of Ilulissat at the southern side of the Ilulissat Icefjord (69.127602° N, 50.702076° E). The midden at the site covers an area of approximately 2900 m2 and is up to 3 m thick (Supplementary Fig. S1). The midden is permanently frozen with an active layer (top layer of soil that thaws during the summer) of approximately 0.5 m. In 2009, a permafrost core was extracted from the site, after which temperature probes (Campbell Scientific T107 temperature probes) were installed at 7, 16, 32, 50, 120, 170, 220, 270 and 320 cm depth. Soil water Theta Probes (ML2x, Delta-T Devices Ltd, Cambridge, UK) were installed in the active layer at the depths 7, 16, 20 and 32 cm. In 2010, a meteorological station was installed, monitoring the air temperature (Campbell Scientific CS215 temperature probe) (Supplementary Fig. S2). Soil bulk samples and volume specific samples (100 cm3) from an exposed, north-facing profile (Profile A) were included in this study
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