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Ice

Yakhchal cooling device in Kashan, Iran. Source: knovakov / Adobe Stock.

The Yakhchāl: Ancient Ice-Making Machines in the Desert (Video)

In the arid expanses of the Persian desert , an ingenious ancient technology known as the Yakhchāl has been discovered, revealing a sophisticated approach to ice-making dating back to 400 BC. These...
The horse bridle was made up of both a bit and leather straps which were once fastened to the horse’s head, which makes it possible to date it. Source: Espen Finstad / Secrets of The Ice / Innlandet County Municipality

Ancient Horse Bridle Emerges from Melting Ice Along Viking Trade Route

A rare Viking Age artifact has melted from its icy-mountain tomb after 1,200 years. Discovered at 2,000 meters above sea level, this timeworn horse bridle whispers of ancient high-altitude traders...
The mussel shell arrowheads have been found together with shafts and lashings. The scale in the lower edge of the image is millimeters.	Source: Cultural History Museum

Curious Mussel Shell Arrowheads in Norway’s Mountains Confound Archaeologists

It’s not the first time archaeologists in Norway have discovered ancient arrows melting out of mountainsides. But it is the first time arrows made from mussel shells have been found. Another Treasure...
536 was a year of climate cataclysm. Winter landscape by Caspar David Friedrich. Source: Public domain

Year of Darkness: The Climate Cataclysm of 536 You’ve Never Heard Of

During 536 the world was beset by a long winter. Dubbed “the year of darkness” in the New Scientist , temperatures plummeted and the sun was dimmed by a vast fog which blocked its rays from hitting...
Looking up inside a Yakhchal

Ancient Advanced Technology: 2,400-Year-Old Yakhchals Kept Ice in the Desert

The ancients were cleverer than some people today assume. They didn’t have rockets or electricity, at least no indisputable proof has been found of such technologies, but they did come up with...
Window looking into the Iceman's refrigerated cell. A new study explores the environment in which the Tyrolean Iceman (Otzi) died. Source: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Ochsenreiter

New Study Raises Questions about the Tyrolean Iceman’s Murder Scene

A new study of ice cores at a previously unexplored ice dome in the Ötztal Alps on the border of Austria and Italy has examined the environment in which the Tyrolean Iceman, popularly known as Otzi,...
Rapidly Melting Norwegian Ice Exposes Land Littered with Ancient Arrows

Rapidly Melting Norwegian Ice Exposes Land Littered with Ancient Arrows

Dozens of ancient arrows dating from the Neolithic to the Viking Era have melted out of the Langfonne ice sheet in Norway. In 2014 and 2016, reindeer bones and antlers, stone and river shell...
Ancient Pyramids in an Icy Landscape: Was There an Ancient Civilization in Antarctica?

Ancient Pyramids in an Icy Landscape: Was There an Ancient Civilization in Antarctica?

In 2016 the World Wide Web was all abuzz with Google Earth images of Antarctica that appear to show pyramids in the icy landscape. The images show what appears to be three pyramids with four sides...
The scientists aren’t sure if the 18,000-year-old puppy is a wolf or a dog. Source: Sergey Fedorov

18,000-Year-Old Puppy Found with Whiskers, Hair, and Velvety Nose

By Anna Lisowska, Svetlana Skarbo The male puppy with its arrow-head milky teeth was less than two months old when it died. It was found in summer 2018 inside a lump of a frozen ground near Indigirka...
The cave lion cub now known as ‘Sparta.’ Source: Siberian Times

Uniquely Preserved Cave Lion Cubs: Stunning Photos and Secrets Revealed

By Valeria Sukhova / Siberian Times At first, scientists believed they had found male cave lion cub siblings that were born 44,000 years ago and found ten meters (32.8 ft.) apart in Yakutia, but the...
Example of a “hand-shaped” knife during sharpening with a metal file after freezing. Source: Eren / Journal of Archaeological Science.

Scientists Recreate Inuit Knife Out of Their Own Frozen Poop

Recent hands-on experiments determined human feces cannot be made into frozen knives to dismember dogs. A new scientific paper opens with a story from the 1998 book Shadows in the Sun: Travels to...
Piri Reis Map

Piri Reis Map - How Could a 16th Century Map Show Antarctica Without Ice?

On October 9, 1929, a German theologian named Gustav Adolf Deissmann was cataloguing items in the Topkapi Palace library in Istanbul when he happened across a curious parchment located among some...
Neutrino concept art

Unidentified High-Energy Particles Detected Passing through the Antarctic Ice

The IceCube Observatory carries the distinction of being the most remote astronomical facility on Earth. Anchored deeply in the ice of Antarctica, in the very definition of the middle of nowhere, the...

Ancient Plants Revive After Being Trapped in Ice for 400 Years

Scientists visiting Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic discovered something remarkable and fascinating . Led by Catherine LaFarge, a geologist from the University of Alberta in Edmonton (Canada...
Moon

The Moon and Its Atmosphere: What You May Not Know

Many people are convinced the Moon lacks an atmosphere. They believe it is directly exposed to the vacuum of space. But this is incorrect. In fact, there is an atmosphere on the Moon. It is far less...
Antarctica’s new Map

Antarctica’s Hidden Mountains Revealed

Antarctica has been covered with ice for thousands of years, and only recently have we been able to fully identify its underlying features. Scientists have turned the spotlight on the topography of...
Europa, Jupiter's Moon

Are Scientists Set to Discover Life Beneath Europa’s Underground Ocean?

Europa is one of Jupiter’s 79 moons. It is one of four large moons that revolve around the planet, and is slightly smaller in size than our moon. Europa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei, and...
Magical Mythology of Winter

The Mythology of Winter: 7 Supernatural Beliefs and Magical Rituals From Around the World

According to ancient folklore, some supernatural beings can only manifest when it is cold. Others use the cold to their advantage in order to achieve a certain result. When spirits appear, they...
Coast of Antarctica with centuries-old thicknesses off glaciers (sichkarenko_com / Adobe Stock)

Tiny Animals Discovered in Lost Lake Beneath 3500 Feet of Ice in Antarctica

Scientists drilling into Mercer Lake, a Subglacial Antarctic lake locked beneath 3500 feet (one kilometer) of ice have discovered the ancient carcasses of tiny animals including “water bears,” in a...
Glacier artifacts. The bones and personal belongings of the "Théodule Pass mercenary”, an unidentified man thought to have fallen into a crevasse above Zermatt in the 17th century.

Global Warming Reveals Amazing Glacier Artifacts from Switzerland’s Ancient Past

In Sion, Switzerland an exhibition is being held which presents glacier artifacts (archaeological finds from glaciers). In recent decades, many discoveries of often perfectly preserved ancient...
Slaves working in a mine. Corinthian terracotta plaque painting, 5th century BC.

Ice-Core Study Finds Evidence of Ancient European Plagues, Wars, and Imperial Expansion

To learn about the rise and fall of ancient European civilizations, researchers sometimes find clues in unlikely places: deep inside of the Greenland ice sheet, for example. Thousands of years ago,...
Iron Age arrow from Trollsteinhøe used to study the relationship between climate variability and how humans used alpine landscapes in the past.

Thawing Ice Reveals Norwegian Mountains Littered with Iron and Bronze Age Artifacts

A group of researchers have reportedly discovered artifacts of wood, textile, hide and other organic material on Jotunheimen and the surrounding mountain areas of Oppland, which include Norway's...
The Viking Age sword found in Oppland, Norway.

Hunters Find Striking Viking Sword Isolated at High Altitude in Norway

Four friends were slowly making their way across the high altitude rocky terrain while hunting reindeer in Oppland, Norway. One noticed a rusty object sticking out of the rocks. Curiosity took over...
A Heart as Cold as Ice? The Japanese Legend of Yuki-onna, the Beautiful Yet Dangerous Snow Woman

A Heart as Cold as Ice? The Japanese Legend of Yuki-onna, the Beautiful Yet Dangerous Snow Woman

The legend of Yuki-onna (the snow woman) comes from The Land of the Rising Sun. This beautiful but dangerous character may be a personification of death in a severe snow storm. Japanese legends do...

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