Culture | In ruins

Climate change is unearthing and erasing history all at once

Rising sea levels and extreme weather are harming archaeology

Archaeologists on the site of Swandro.
A hole lot of troublePhotograph: Stephen Dockril
|ROUSAY

IT LOOKS, at first glance, like a pile of rubble. But hidden beneath the sandbags and tarpaulin is the Knowe of Swandro, an archaeological site that contains the remains of Iron Age and Norse settlements (pictured). Every summer a team of archaeologists descends on Rousay, one of the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland, to sift through the evidence.

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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “In ruins”

From the March 16th 2024 edition

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