Treasures buried in Roman fortresses are under threat due to global warming. British experts are afraid that the dried soil will deprive them of protection. About it informs BBC News.
A Roman toilet bowl, the world’s first boxing glove, and an ancient letter written by a woman are just some of the valuable objects that have been found in endangered peat bogs near the Roman fortress of Magna.
Climate change is causing the drying up of the peatlands that cover about 10 percent of the UK. Since peat contains very little oxygen, organic materials – wood, leather, fabrics – do not rot in it. Things can be preserved in peat bogs for many millennia.
If the soil dries out, archaeologists will not have time to pull out ancient objects – rotting begins quickly, and it will take a lot of time and financial resources to extract large objects from the ground. At the moment, about 22.5 thousand archaeological sites in Britain are under threat. Experts are afraid that climate change will greatly distort the knowledge of modern people about the life of their ancestors.
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Archaeologists from Magna believe that the process at their site has already begun. Over the past decade, the land around the fortress has settled by about a meter. Magna’s chief archaeologist Dr. Andrew Birley worries that the “historical time capsule” will be lost to people – so far, excavations have covered only a small part of the object.
“This place has amazing potential. Almost everything that the Romans used here for 300 or 400 years could be preserved in this soil almost in its original state. This is an amazing opportunity for archaeologists,” Birli said.
Earlier in January it was reported that Britain is trying to fight climate change, but to no avail. Buildings in the United Kingdom are assessed according to a special system that determines their environmental friendliness. However, the study showed that buildings that received the highest rating cause more damage to nature than those that received the lowest rating.
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