[OANNES Foro] Nations are preparing to stake their rights as the owners of swathes of Antarctica-could archaeological discoveries there influence the continent's future?

[Mario Cabrejos]

In 30 years' time, the treaty that maintains harmony in Antarctica will be
up for review - could archaeological discoveries there influence the
continent's future?

The bones that could shape Antarctica's fate

By Martha Henriques

22 October 2018

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20181019-the-bones-that-could-shape-antarcti
cas-future

In 1985, a unique skull was discovered lying on Yamana Beach at Cape
Shirreff in Antarctica's South Shetland Islands. It belonged to an
indigenous woman from southern Chile in her early 20s, thought to have died
between 1819 and 1825. It was the oldest known human remains ever found in
Antarctica.

The location of the discovered skull was unexpected. It was found at a beach
camp made by sealers in the early 19th Century near remnants of her femur
bone, yet female sealers were unheard of at the time. There are no surviving
documents explaining how or why a young woman came to be in Antarctica
during this era. Now, at nearly 200 years old, the skull is thought to align
with the beginning of the first known landings on Antarctica.

The Yamana Beach skull was a significant find - and not just for
archaeological reasons. In 30 years' time, bones such as these may come into
play in territorial claims for this pristine wilderness. Nations are quietly
- and sometimes not so quietly - preparing to stake their rights as the
owners of swathes of the nearly uninhabitable land.

"Lots of people just don't understand that there's a darker side to
Antarctica," says Klaus Dodds, professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway
University of London. "What we're seeing is great power politics play out in
a space that a lot of people think of as just frozen wastes."

 

 
<http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_720/images/live/p0/6p/8d/p0
6p8dv4.jpg> Antarctica map (Credit: Lokal_Profil/Wikipedia/CC BY 2.5)

Various countries have made overlapping claims to territory - not all
captured by the original treaty (Credit: Lokal_Profil/Wikipedia/CC BY 2.5)

The Antarctic Treaty System was first signed in 1959 but, in 1998 a protocol
on environmental protection was added. It states that Antarctica is to be a
"natural reserve, devoted to peace and science," and prohibits all
activities relating to Antarctic mineral resources, except as is necessary
for scientific research. But this is not set in stone forever.

In 2048 - 50 years after the protocol was created - this part of the treaty
could come under review. That is the date when the prohibition on mining and
resource extraction could - and it's a big could - be altered or done away
with.

"The reason 2048 looms large is because if certain countries feel that the
prohibition on mineral exploitation is no longer to be respected, people
worry that the whole thing could unravel," says Dodds. "Environmental
protection is one of the key headlines of the treaty."

Seven nations laid overlapping claims on Antarctic land when the treaty was
adopted: Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the
UK. The treaty held all these claims in place and prohibited any new ones
from being established. The treaty also puts any expansions to territorial
claims to Antarctica on hold - officially.

"The claimant states, in a sense, keep their claims in a box, if you like,
with a lid on it. But that box will never be thrown away," says Jill
Barrett, an international law consultant and visiting reader in
international law at Queen Mary University of London.

Many nations, however, are engaging in 'doublethink' about this part of the
agreement, says Dodds. "The big players, usually China and Russia, are
thinking about this particular episode around 2048 and planning ahead."

As a result, many countries are sending feelers out to Antarctica in a
number of ways, such as financing scientific research, historical
investigation, and building research bases far and wide around the
continent. "It's a very clear message to the wider world: we're in the whole
space," says Dodds.

Archaeology is one of the most important activities, says Michael Pearson,
an Antarctic heritage consultant and former deputy executive director of the
Australian Heritage Commission. "It establishes an interest, if not a stake,
in future discussions about territorial claims or commercial exploitation."

While archaeological finds like the discovery of the Yamana Beach skull
carry no legal weight - the woman was more likely to have been a sealer than
an official - they might just challenge the known timeline of the
continent's history. If Chile can demonstrate that it had people living in
Antarctica earlier than other nations staking land claims, then they have a
stronger hand in negotiations.

Archaeological discoveries can also boost political support for a case back
home. "When remains or objects are found in the ice, I could see straight
away it would inflate territorial nationalism," says Dodds. "Archaeology has
always been really important for national politics."

Other events, such as historic shipwrecks, could play a similar role as the
Yamana skull. In 1819, the Spanish frigate San Telmo was wrecked in the
Drake Passage, which separates the tip of Chile from the Antarctic
Peninsula. Archaeologists have searched the Antarctic islands for signs of
whether any crew made it alive to the shore.

"Shipwreck remains were found there washed up on the South Shetlands," says
Pearson. "Quite possibly some of the crew survived on the floating
wreckage." If there were survivors, they would have beaten the British to be
the first in Antarctica.

The upside of all this attention is that a single nation's investment in
archaeology can reveal artefacts and remains that can enlighten the whole
world - discoveries that might never otherwise have been found. "The
underlying nationalistic ambitions of countries, be they overtly expressed
or covert motivations, can be beneficial," says Pearson. "They provide
funding and logistical support to carry out archaeological research, which
is otherwise very hard to get."

For the Chilean woman whose skull was found on Yamana Beach, the most likely
conclusion is that she was caught up somehow in a sealing mission to
Antarctica. She may have drowned or died of exposure on the shore. But her
bones remain among the most significant archaeological discoveries ever made
in Antarctica. And they are now part of a much bigger picture of soft power
and national pride, in the context of the political long-game of laying
claim to the frozen continent.

 



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