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The Tyrolean Iceman and His Glacial Environment During the Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2016

Walter Kutschera ,
Gernot Patzelt ,
Peter Steier Open the ORCID record for Peter Steier [Opens in a new window]  and
Eva Maria Wild
Walter Kutschera*
Affiliation:
University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics – Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Gernot Patzelt
Affiliation:
Patscher Strasse 20, A-6080 Innsbruck-Igls, Austria
Peter Steier
Affiliation:
University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics – Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Eva Maria Wild
Affiliation:
University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics – Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), A-1090 Vienna, Austria
*
*Corresponding author. Email: walter.kutschera@univie.ac.at.
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Abstract

This paper summarizes the present knowledge on the variation of summer temperatures in the European Alps throughout the Holocene by combining the results of an extraordinary archaeological find with the information gathered from glacier and tree-line movements. As it turns out, there were several distinct periods were the glaciers were smaller than today, allowing in some periods the growth of trees in areas, which even now are still covered with ice. On average, the first half of the Holocene was warmer than the second half, with temperatures starting to decrease around the time of the Iceman some 5000 yr ago. One of the coldest periods during the Holocene, the so-called Little Ice Age (LIA), lasted from about AD 1300 to 1850. It is well known that since then the Alpine glaciers have been receding, most likely amplified by anthropogenic impact. The study of temperature variations before human influence may help to eventually disentangle natural and anthropogenic causes for the global warming of our time.

Keywords

AMS 14C datingdendrochronologyglacierclimate
Type
14C as a Tracer of Past or Present Continental Environment
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 2: Proceedings of the 22nd International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 2) , April 2017 , pp. 395 - 405
Copyright
© 2016 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 2015 Radiocarbon Conference, Dakar, Senegal, 16–20 November 2015

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