Climate threatens historic Eskimo site

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ABERDEEN, Scotland, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- British archaeologists say they're racing to collect data from a recently discovered 500-year-old Alaskan settlement that is being swallowed by the Bering Sea.

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen said the well preserved frozen site offers a wealth of information on the Yup'ik Eskimo culture, one of the last contacted Eskimo societies that inhabited an area three times the size of Scotland.

Aberdeen researchers are helping recover thousands of artifacts that were being eroded out of the ground near the modern village of Quinhagak.

"It's probably the most spectacularly well preserved and valuable site in terms of information content I've ever seen", researcher Rick Knecht told the BBC.

But the process responsible for revealing the archaeological treasures also threatens to eradicate the site, he said.

"It's preserved by permafrost, and the permafrost is melting due to climate change," he said. "As it melts, it exposes the very soft soil to marine erosion: the shoreline retreats and the sites get damaged."

The site, known as Nunalleq, was inhabited from around 1350 to 1650.