How archaeologists handle once-submerged ruins revealed during a summer of droughts
- Low water levels across the world led to interesting objects that were once submerged suddenly becoming accessible
- It is the job of archaeologists to try to glean as much information as possible in a highly constrained setting
China has spent the summer of 2022 grappling with a brutal heatwave and a severe drought, leading to the lowest water levels along the Yangtze River since 1865.
Similar instances have happened worldwide, as once-submerged historical artefacts in the US, Europe and the Middle East are suddenly easily accessible on land.
“Depending on if it is deemed a ‘crisis’, there are some avenues for emergency funding, and in that situation there may be a mad-dash of archaeological mapping and excavation,” said Anna Marie Prentiss, a regents professor of anthropology at the University of Montana in the US.
A recent example of a mad-dash occurred in Iraq in January when archaeologists had to race to investigate an ancient city after authorities drained part of a reservoir to provide water for crops amid a drought.