Review by Booklist Review
Clear, vivid prose; full-color illustrations; and a slim format combine in this accessible approach to learning about glacial archaeology. A lively introduction sets the stage, explaining how global warming is melting much of Earth's cryosphere (glaciers, permafrost, ice caps, and so on), revealing what's been long buried and preserved beneath, which ultimately offers scientists and other researchers unique insights about millennia-old people, animals, and plant life. The subsequent spreads showcase the wide variety of discoveries glacial archaeologists have made around the world, such as the 5,000-year-old remains and personal effects of a man in the Alps, Scythian tombs (kurgans) under the Asian Altai Mountains' permafrost, even ice-age mammoths and cave lions; and each new finds illuminates the ways they lived and the world they inhabited. Throughout, the author nicely explains methodologies, such as radiocarbon dating and DNA testing, while interspersed sidebars, drawings, and photos (including potentially squirm-inducing mummified bodies) further extend and illustrate the information presented throughout. Both engaging and educational, this may pique further interest in the topic. Includes glossary, additional resources, time line, and index.--Shelle Rosenfeld Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-Our changing climate is causing Earth's ice to rapidly melt, creating future problems for much of the world. But from this difficult scenario a new scientific field is born: glacial archaeology. With the melting of the glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost comes long hidden artifacts. Tools, clothes, and even fully preserved humans have been found in Norway, Peru, and parts of Siberia. Using tools such as radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, and powerful scanners, glacial archaeologists are able to recover specific and exact information regarding the last days of their subjects' lives. Some of the remains discussed and illustrated are of children, long ago hunters, baby lions, and puppies. The findings revealed by the melting ice have reshaped some long held concepts of migration and evolution. Using photographs along with colorfully drawn illustrations as well as maps, charts, and an accessible text, this is a highly useful work. VERDICT A valuable resource in the study of climate change, environment, and history for students.-Eva Elisabeth VonAncken, formerly at Trinity-Pawling School, NY © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Climate change is causing glaciers and ice sheets to melt. As the ice recedes, ancient artifacts are revealed and archaeologists scramble to recover them before they are destroyed. This book explores glacial archaeological sites from around the world, detailing the artifacts recovered and what they teach us about the past. Color photographs and illustrations provide visual depictions of the time periods being discussed. Reading list, timeline. Glos., ind. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Recent revelations from our planet's shrinking "cryosphere."Preserved in ice or permafrost like "the veggies in a kitchen freezer," artifacts and bodies both human and animal are now being discovered at an increasingly rapid pace in many parts of the world. With particular attention to finds in northern Canada and, more broadly, the northern region known as Beringia, Eamer highlights their varietyfrom cave lion cubs, woolly mammoths, and rotting 2,400-year-old caribou poop to a moccasin "worn and lost 1300 years ago" and an entire passenger plane that went down in Alaska in 1952 but has only since 2012 begun emerging from a receding glacier. Many of these are both chance discoveries and ephemeral, but they offer unique information about ancient times and our own histories. For human remains she includes descriptions of tzi (the "Iceman") and Scythian kurgan burials in the Altai Mountains among others but devotes particular attention to Kwday Dn Ts'nchi, a 200- to 300-year-old Indigenous teen found in northern Canada with, according to DNA analysis, 17 living relatives. Shannon fills in the sparse assortment of photographed artifacts and bodies with rough, generic paintings, mostly reconstructions of prehistoric scenes or images of wildlife and of researchers at work. The rare human figures visible in the painted art are nearly all light-skinned.A wide-angled survey of the hot new field of "glacial archeology." (timeline, resource list, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
