Richard Mostyn
Courtesy of Yukon News

WHITEHORSE (Sep 06/99) - An archeological expedition has recovered the remains of a stone-age hunter from a mountaintop glacier in northwestern British Columbia.

How old is old? Determining the age of the ancient human remains discovered last week in northernwestern British Columbia may take several weeks, says a heritage resource officer in the Yukon. The prehistoric remains of a man frozen in ice on territory belonging to the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations will remain in a Yukon government freezer until the preliminary scientific steps are set up. "Right now we are trying to work as quickly as possible to develop a management team," says Diane Strand. "We are really just in the infant stages and are hoping to get something definite established by next week." Strand is referring to where tests on the man will be conducted -- in southern or northern British Columbia or in the Yukon -- and exactly what type of tests will be used to examine what is believed to be a hunter from thousands of years ago. Either carbon dating, DNA testing or pollen testing could be used in determining the age, possibly narrowing the timeframe down to within 100 years of his age. A frozen dead moose was discovered in the same area as the preserved hunter. Scientists are currently conducting tests on samples from the moose to determine if there is any possible connection between the two.

The eight-member team, which included Owen Beattie, a renown forensic anthropologist from Alberta, was choppered into the nearby Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Park on Aug. 22.

There, at a site about 1,650 metres above sea level battered by snow squalls, near-zero temperatures and high winds, native representatives said a prayer for the aboriginal man.

Then team members used shovels and ice axes to clear snow and ice. Finally, scientists wearing lab coats and rubber gloves used trowels and, at times, their hands to dig the so-called ice man from his eons-old crypt.

The human remains, which were clad in painstakingly stitched buckskin garments, were wrapped and stored in large coolers kept cold by ice cut from the glacier with chainsaws.

As well, archeologists recovered a sheathed knife that appears to be made from stone, a two-metre-long staff, an assortment of tools, clothing, including a finely woven bark hat, and an atlatl-like spear thrower bearing an intricately carved native design, its handle blackened from use.

"It seems, in many respects, to be highly comparable" to a 5,000-year-old copper-age hunter found by hikers in the Austrian Alps in September, 1991, said Al Mackie, project officer with the archeology branch of British Columbia's Small Business, Tourism and Culture Department.

"It was immediately obvious, the significance of the find."

But Mackie was reluctant to discuss any details about the hunter's remains.

It's believed the hunter fell into a crevasse while crossing the glacier, said Champagne and Aishihik chief Bob Charlie.

Officials still have not determined the age of the remains, though they're confident they predate contact with Europeans, making them at least 500 years old.

But it's possible they could be as old as Austria's 5,000-year-old ill-fated hunter.

Like Europe's copper-age man, global warming melted this prehistoric hunter from the glacier.

It was pure luck that he was found, said Mackie.

Also like the Austrian discovery, British Columbia's prehistoric man was found by a group of hikers.

The three British Columbian teachers -- Mike Roch, Warren Ward and Bill Hanlon -- were seven days into a 14-day sheep hunt when they happened across the site, first finding pieces of hand-tooled wood, about 45 centimetres long by 2.5 centimetres in diameter.

The wood stood out because the three men were well above the treeline.

Then, following the lip of the alpine glacier, they came across the atlatl and other debris scattered across the moraine.

After finding the first artifacts, Ward broke a cardinal rule of sheep hunting.

"You should never raise your binoculars when you're exhausted -- sure enough you'll see something you have to chase."

In this case, Ward saw the hunter's tattered buckskin clothes about 10 metres away.

"It was like we were on a mission," said Ward. "It was time for him to come out.

"I said, 'I found the guy who owned these things.' Mike said, 'Quit it, you're giving me the shivers.'

"I had a heavy feeling, it was oppressive. Human remains are a big thing.

"And it made me feel vulnerable -- it happened to him, it could happen to me."

The hunter's torso had been severed, said Ward.

"There was little flesh, but a lot of material," said Ward.

"It looked like it had been exposed a number of times over the years. The lower torso -- the pelvis -- was up the ice about 10 feet."

The men marvelled at the stitching in the clothes, which was so intricate and precise it could have been done with metal needles, he said.

After a brief discussion, they gathered a few artifacts to give to officials and hiked back 10 hours to their camp. Then they began the two-day hike back to their truck, packing the two sheep they had shot.

Back in Whitehorse, they presented the artifacts to staff at the Beringia Centre on Aug. 14. Following the discovery, Yukon archeologists flew to the site, snapped photos and notified authorities in British Columbia.

But the recovery of the remains was delayed by the Champagne and Aishihik First Nation, which was discussing joint resource-management issues with the Carcross First Nation at a remote site on Kusawa Lake.

The territorial and provincial governments refused to proceed with the recovery without the band's blessing.

Once Beattie saw the pictures, he urged the project proceed quickly. Exposed to sunlight and scavengers, like wolverines and ravens, he felt the find might be lost.

So they pressed the 1,129-member First Nation, whose traditional territory sits within the wilderness park, to take action.

The band wouldn't permit retrieving the remains, which it has named Kwaday Dan Sinchi -- Long-ago person found -- until it consulted with its elders.

A meeting was called and permission was obtained.

"The elders have indicated that we should use this situation, what appears to be an ancient tragedy, to learn more about this person, when he lived and how his clothes and tools were made and how he died," said Charlie.

In fact, the band sees the find as more than a cultural boon. It's already planning to tap into research grants that will help pay its members to study the remains.

A team has been assembled to decide how the ice man will be studied, and where.

It promises to be an expensive project. Keeping the European ice man preserved in a bacteria-resistant freezer duplicating conditions in the glacier where he was found costs $15,000 US a month.

British Columbia's ice man will be buried at an appropriate time, once all the research opportunities have been exhausted, said Gaunt.

"It obviously won't be very soon," she said.