I had referenced before that we live interesting times, and that some of the melting that is going on might even be good for science, as collecting samples from where ice is gone, will certainly reveal our past history in more detail... One week later, an interesting news article from Reuters is one more proof that there have been more interesting times in recent history...Lars Piloe, a Danish scientist heading a team of "snow patch archaeologists", is recovering artifacts in mid-Norway, 1850 meters above sea level. He has found "specialized hunting sticks, bows and arrows and even a 3,400-year-old leather shoe" in the Jotunheimen mountains, The Home of the Giants, inspired by the name Jötunheimr in Norse mythology. The findings are very significant, with 600 artifacts recovered in the Juvfonna ice-field alone.
Rune Strand Oedegaard, a glacier and permafrost expert from Norway's Gjoevik University College states that "some ice fields are at their minimum for at least 3000 years,". Interestingly, though, is that these artifacts seem to be from the Iron Age, more or less 1500 years ago, or even from Viking times, only 1000 years ago. This leads to the conclusion that these artifacts are from the Medieval Warm Period, and not from Holocene climatic optimum, as Oedegaard states.
What remains clear from these examples is that past climate was clearly warmer, with less ice, both in glaciers and in the Arctic, not long ago. One more clear indication of the hockey stick fraud (they hided the decline before 1400, remember?), and that the warming we are experiencing today is not abnormal, even in recent times...
