17th century graves on Svalbard are threatened by rising temperatures

Researchers in the Norwegian project Skelleton in a cupboard report that graves from the 17th and 18th centuries on Svalbard are being damaged by climate change. Coffins are collapsing, skeletal remains are being exposed, and some remains have been carried into the sea. The project links the damage to the fast warming recorded in the archipelago during the last 30 to 40 years.

Burial on Svalbard has been illegal since the 1950s. Centuries ago the islands were a no man's land, and the people who died there were mostly whale hunters from Europe and from Russia's White Sea region. The new analysis of skeletons and textiles covers large cemeteries at Likneset, Jensenvatnet, Smeerenburg and Ytre Norskøya. Together these sites hold about 600 graves.

Permafrost has so far kept the burials well preserved, and skin and textiles can still be studied. The study explains that warming brings more extreme weather, including more precipitation and landslides that reshape the terrain. Permafrost covers less ground, and thaw reaches deeper. With less sea ice and more waves hitting the shore, sediments are washed out. Under these conditions coffins fall apart, and the skeletons and textiles are exposed to sediment, water and oxygen. The researchers said repeated condition assessments show textiles are now breaking down faster than they did in the 1980s.

The graves have cultural value because they show how people in the archipelago lived long ago, the report said. According to the skeletal analyses, malnutrition and disease affected a number of the whale hunters, and most of them did heavy work from an early age. Scurvy, which develops when the body lacks vitamin C, was the most common cause of death.