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Article: Freed from the ice: around the world, glaciers are melting--revealing human remains and artifacts that have been trapped in ice for thousands of years.(EARTH: GLACIERS)
- Article from:
- Science World
- Article date:
- March 16, 2009
- Author:
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In August 1999, three Canadian schoolteachers were trekking along the edge of a glacier in British Columbia in search of wild sheep. Instead, what they found was the body of a dead man trapped in ice.
The teachers immediately contacted the authorities. After some sleuthing, scientists determined that the "iceman" died more than 200 years ago. He was a mummy, meaning that his remains had been unusually well preserved. The extreme cold and ice had protected the man's body from decomposing, or breaking down.
It's not every day that someone stumbles across an ice mummy--in fact, it is very rare. However, scientists say that as ...