The race between deterioration and investigation — between the rate at which permafrost-preserved sites are degrading and the rate at which archaeologists can excavate and analyze them — is one of the more urgent applied challenges in Arctic archaeology today.

The Long View From a Yukon Cave

Standing at the entrance to Bluefish Cave I today — if you are fortunate enough to make the logistically challenging journey to this remote location — you would look out over a subarctic landscape of boreal forest and tundra, with the Bluefish River visible in the valley below and the mountains of the southern Yukon visible on the horizon.

The landscape you see would be unrecognizable to the person who stood at the same spot 24,000 years ago.