SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Melting ice patches in the Mackenzie Mountains have revealed secrets of the distant past in the Northwest Territories.

Tom Andrews, an archeologist with the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, stands by an ice patch in the Mackenzie Mountains. - photo courtesy of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre

Researchers have found ancient artifacts – bows and arrows, spears, snares, stone tools and more – left behind by caribou hunters from as far back as 2,400 years.

Tom Andrews, an archeologist with the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife and lead researcher on the study, is amazed by the discovered implements.

"We're just like children opening Christmas presents. I kind of pinch myself," he said in a news release from the Arctic Institute of North America.

Ice patches are accumulations of snow that, until recent climate warming, remained frozen all year.

In ancient times, as now, caribou would retreat to the cooler mountains in the summer to find relief from heat, flies and mosquitoes.

"They'd get up over 6,000 feet to cool down basically and to get away from the bugs," said Barb Cameron, director of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. "The Mountain Dene would go up into the mountains to hunt."

The research – the NWT Ice Patch Study – was conducted by Andrews and fellow GNWT archaeologist Glen MacKay with the participation of elders and students from Tulita.

Leon Andrew, an elder with the Tulita Dene Band, has been involved in the research since 2005.

"It's opened up our history to prove we've been around for a while," Andrew said.

The elder admitted he was surprised by what was found.

"I didn't think we would find anything," he said.

In particular, he recalled seeing lacing on an arrowhead, which he described as seeming to be frozen in time.

"It just looked like it was left there last year," he said. "It was amazing."

While the caribou still go into the mountains, Andrew said the Mountain Dene, who call themselves the Shuhtaot'ine, don't follow the animals up anymore since the introduction of new technology like guns.

"It's kind of a little high to be wandering around," said the Norman Wells resident.

The research area is about 300 km southwest of Tulita.

Cameron said the items being found in the ice patches are very well preserved.

"The ice patches have preserved these objects for a couple of thousand years," she said, adding that makes them very rare finds. "It's quite remarkable really."

The research has confirmed eight ice patch sites and another 12 are being monitored.

Cameron said the research in the Mackenzie Mountains can trace it origins to the late 1990s, when sheep hunters in the mountains of the Yukon found a black band of something under the ice.

"So they started digging around and it sort of smelled like caribou dung," she explained, adding that a 4,300-year-old dart shaft made out of birch was also found.

"This discovery started a whole new field of archaeology that we're calling ice patch archaeology," she said.

The initial stages of the research in the NWT began in 2000, when Andrews obtained satellite imagery of specific areas of the Mackenzie Mountains and began to look for ice patches in the region.

It wasn't until five years later that a helicopter actually brought researchers to the area to examine two ice patches.

"Lo and behold, we found a willow bow," Andrews recalled.

The bow was dated to about 340 years ago.

Cameron said that find led to the GNWT going to the International Polar Year program for funding support for the next four years.

Further research found 2,400-year-old spear throwing tools, a 1,000-year-old ground squirrel snare, and bows and arrows dating back 850 years.

"The implements are truly amazing," Andrews said. "There are wooden arrows and dart shafts so fine you can't believe someone sat down with a stone and made them."

Biologists involved in the project are examining dung for plant remains, insect parts, pollen and caribou parasites

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment partnered with the Tulita Dene Band and worked with elders and students on the research.

Camps were held in the mountains during the summers of 2007 and 2008, and about seven students and five elders from Tulita participated.

"They had elders and scientists together and it was one of these ideal learning situations where elders could talk about traditional hunting practices and areas, and students could learn from them," Cameron said. "At the same time, archaeologists were sharing their science."

In December, the two GNWT archaeologists and Andrew released a book on the project – 'Hunters of the Alpine Ice: The NWT Ice Patch Study'.

"It's a beautiful book," Cameron said, noting it was created particularly for students.

It is very good example of sharing knowledge, she added. "Often people do research and communities or people don't often get the benefit of the research."

Funding for the research project from the International Polar Year ended on March 31, and this year will involve more writing and a limited amount of helicopter time, Cameron said.

If the project is to continue, more funding will have to be found.

"We realize that the ice patches are continuing to melt and we have an ethical obligations to collect these artifacts as they are exposed," Andrews said, noting that, if they are left of the ground, the implements will be trampled by caribou or dissolved by the acidic soils in a year or two.