Archaeologists studying a centuries-old whaling burial ground in the Arctic have warned that rising temperatures and thawing permafrost are rapidly destroying some of the world’s best-preserved archaeological remains.
The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, focuses on the Likneset burial site in northwestern Svalbard, where the graves of early modern whalers have been preserved in frozen ground for hundreds of years.
Researchers examined the remains of 20 individuals buried at the site between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, combining archaeological evidence with osteological analysis to investigate both climate-driven damage to the graves and the harsh living conditions faced by Arctic whalers.
The study found that burials exposed to coastal erosion and thawing ground had suffered severe deterioration, with textiles and wooden coffins breaking down far faster than human bone.
Likneset, sometimes called “Corpse Point”, is the largest known whaling burial site on Svalbard. More than 225 graves have been recorded there since the 1980s, although parts of the cemetery have already been lost to coastal erosion.
These findings suggest that Svalbard is warming faster than many other areas of the world. With the thawing of permafrost, archaeological sites once protected by permanently frozen ground are becoming unstable and are more susceptible to moisture, erosion and microbial decay. “Rapid Arctic warming is accelerating the degradation of permafrost-preserved archaeological sites,” the authors said, adding that irreplaceable cultural evidence might vanish before it is fully documented.
The team compared graves excavated during three separate archaeological campaigns carried out between 1985 and 2019. Burials on the eroding shoreline displayed significant structural damage, including collapsed coffins, shifted stones and degraded textiles. The graves in areas of the site that were more stable were in much better condition.
One of the clearest findings involved clothing and fabric. Graves excavated in the 1980s still contained remarkably preserved woollen garments, caps, stockings and even silk scarves. Nearby graves opened decades later had lost most surviving textiles, despite otherwise similar burial conditions.
The researchers say the comparison provides direct evidence of how warming Arctic conditions are accelerating the destruction of organic archaeological material. At the same time, the human remains themselves revealed the physical toll of life in the Arctic whaling industry.
All of the individuals examined were adult men, most dying between the ages of 20 and 34. Many displayed signs of extreme physical strain, nutritional deficiency and chronic illness. Evidence of scurvy, caused by prolonged vitamin C deficiency, appeared in 18 of the 19 skeletons analysed. Researchers also identified developmental stress markers linked to childhood illness or malnutrition, alongside widespread degenerative joint disease and repetitive strain injuries.
The skeletons exhibited damage to shoulders, spines, hips and limbs typical of heavy manual labour. But some young men already showed severe joint degeneration that is characteristic of much older people. The study also noted widespread pipe-smoking wear on teeth, as well as injuries that had healed over the course of their lives, so that many workers survived numerous accidents and tough working conditions.
Historical data reveals that Arctic whaling men worked in cold weather, physically demanding labour and limited availability of fresh food during long voyages. The skeletons are, the researchers argue, direct biological evidence of those conditions. Though the men showed evidence of disease and stress, many were relatively tall and strong, suggesting their recruitment to demanding maritime work. The findings, say the researchers, underscore a rising threat climate change is creating to Arctic cultural heritage.
Existing preservation strategies on Svalbard are primarily based on leaving sites undisturbed, but the study details ways in which such approaches are becoming increasingly unsustainable as erosion and permafrost thaw ramp up. Long-term monitoring programmes, targeted archaeological documentation and a closer integration of cultural heritage into climate adaptation planning, the authors argue, is needed before more material is lost. For archaeologists, places like Likneset are more than historic cemeteries. They are scarce archives of daily life, labour and survival in one of the harshest places of work in the early modern world.
Header Image Credit : Lise LoktuElin / Therese Brødholt
Sources : PLOS ONE – https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347033
