Climate change threatens to destroy buried treasure in the UK as the soils that protect it dry out.
A Roman toilet seat, the world’s oldest boxing glove and the oldest handwritten letter by a woman are some of the extraordinary objects unearthed on vulnerable British moors.
It means climate change could undermine our understanding of our past, archaeologists say.
Around 22,500 archaeological sites in the UK could be at risk.
The problem is that changing weather patterns are drying up some peatlands – the waterlogged soils that cover around 10% of the UK.
Since peat contains very little oxygen, organic materials such as wood, leather and textiles do not rot. They can survive for thousands of years, preserved by the stable anoxic chemistry of the soil.
But when soils dry out, oxygen can enter the system and start the decomposition process. When that happens, artifacts can rot pretty quickly.
These potentially huge sites could cost hundreds of millions of pounds to excavate and take decades, possibly with serious damage.
Trustees at Magna, a Roman fortress next to Hadrian’s Wall, fear the local process is already underway.
The warnings come as the 1,900th anniversary celebrations begin this week. anniversary of the start of construction of the Wall.
The land at Magna has subsided by up to a meter in places over the past decade. It’s evidence of “desiccation” — drying out of the peat layer — fears Dr. Andrew Birley, the site’s chief archaeologist.
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This puts “a historical time capsule” in danger, he says, because only a tiny part of the site has been excavated so far.
“This place has the potential to be frankly amazing,” believes Dr. Birley. “Pretty much anything the Romans used here for 300 or 400 years could have been preserved in more or less the condition in which it was thrown away, which is an incredible opportunity.”
Another fort a few kilometers along Hadrian’s Wall gives an idea of the amazing objects that might lie hidden at Magna.
Excavations at Vindolanda have uncovered the world’s oldest boxing gloves – so well preserved that you can still see the imprint of the boxer’s knuckles on one.
More Roman shoes have been discovered here than anywhere else in the world.
It is also the source of the oldest handwritten message from a woman found anywhere.
In the note, Claudia Severa, the wife of the commander of a nearby fortress, invites her friend Lepidina to her birthday celebration on September 11, some 1,900 years ago.
“Oh how I want you at my birthday party,” writes Claudia. “You will make the day so much more fun. I hope so much that you make it. Goodbye, sister, my dearest soul.”
Everyday objects like these offer a unique connection to the lives of ordinary people in antiquity.
“That kind of stuff doesn’t usually survive,” says Dr. Birley, who works at both locations. “It can give us amazing glimpses of life here on the northern frontier nearly 2,000 years ago.”
He says Magna’s priority now is to find out what’s happening underground.
Boreholes have been dug and electronic devices measure the water flow and temperature every hour.
At Teesside University, Dr. Gillian Taylor analyzed the chemicals in soil cores at the site to try to understand the processes at work.
It would be a “disaster” for any organic artifacts if the peat dries, she says. “The risk is that they will disappear. We will lose our legacy if we don’t look at what is happening now.”
dr Birley fears the worst and plans to begin digging test trenches at the site next year. As a small charity, that’s the earliest they can start, given the cost and manpower required.
He says if it appears the peat’s condition is changing rapidly and the treasures could be lost, a full excavation may be required.
And changing weather patterns aren’t just threatening the survival of Roman remains. Experts estimate that there are around 22,500 archaeological sites in or under peat in the UK.
dr Northumbria University’s Rosie Everett is part of a team that has been studying the effects of climate change on peatland archeology across the UK.
She says a variety of historic sites are threatened in peatlands spanning the country’s entire history.
There are Palaeolithic routes dating back as far as 12,000 years and Bronze Age burial sites, as well as the remains of more modern settlements and industrial activities.
“Bogs represent such a small part of Britain’s ecology, but they have enormous potential to tell us something about our past,” says Dr. Everett.
While an archaeologist working at a “dry” site may find perhaps 10% of what was once there, at a peatland site he can find up to 90% of the material culture of ancient communities, archaeologists say.
“The loss of peatlands would have major implications for understanding the country’s history, but also for our climate history and our environmental history,” says Dr. Everett.
Therefore, she believes there should be greater efforts to protect them.
dr Birley agrees. “When we lose places like this, we lose this direct connection to the people who lived on this island 2,000 years ago,” he says.
“We lose the chance to learn as much as we can about them. And we are losing part of our own heritage and part of our own history.”
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