Race to save hidden treasures under threat from climate change

Thousands of ancient treasures that have been unearthed by climate change could soon be lost to humankind forever, as they are eroded by weathering and eaten by pests. The crisis is so extreme that some archaeologists are urging colleagues to abandon their current field sites and focus instead on these newly exposed relics before they vanish. Rising seas, raging storms, melting ice and forest fires are revealing artefacts that have much to tell us about our history on Earth – from sunken shipwrecks in Svalbard to the ancient waste dumps filled with bones, shoes and carvings emerging all over the Arctic and further south, including in Scotland. "This material is like the library of Alexandria. It is incredibly valuable and it's on fire now," George Hambrecht, an anthropologist at the University of Maryland, College Park, told New Scientist at the Anthropology, Weather and Climate Change conference held in London last month.