Across Atlantic Ice

by Dennis J. Stanford

  ADAPTING TO LIFE ON THE BEACH: A PRELUDE TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

  Reconstructions of the LGM marine environment of the Bay of Biscay are dependent on the polar front’s changing latitude, caused by the many shifts in global cooling and warming. During colder phases the polar front extended southward into the bay or perhaps even farther, into the lower latitudes along the west coast of Portugal. During warmer phases it receded north.2 In Solutrean times these shifts occurred in various degrees many times. We are witnessing the same process today as global warming shifts the polar front northward.

  The Gulf Stream, then as now, was warmed in the southern latitudes, flowed northward along the East Coast of North America, where it picked up trees and other flotsam flushed out to sea, and merged with the iceberg-laden Labrador Current off Cape Hatteras to become the eastward-arching North Atlantic Drift (figure 9.1). The North Atlantic Drift diverged into two branches, one passing south of Iceland and the other curving southeast toward the Bay of Biscay, where ice pushed southward by surface currents along the Celtic-Armorican-Aquitaine coastline further cooled the waters. In contrast to today’s notably ferocious seas, caused by winds driving water across the shallow continental shelf, the deepwater reach of LGM coastal waters would not have been so turbulent. To the west the Canary Current slid past Portugal and then western Africa before making its final leg back to the Caribbean, completing the North Atlantic Gyre.

  The Subarctic Gyre and the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre are important oceanographic aspects of our studies not only for understanding how these currents affected ice floes and navigation but also because, as mentioned above, terrestrial debris flushed into the oceans is caught up in gyres and eventually washes ashore in distant lands.3 Icebergs, trees, and flotsam carried from North America were scattered along the outer continental coastlines of western Europe, where they collected on catcher beaches and in estuaries. During the LGM these resources, especially the wood, would have been highly prized by the human inhabitants of the western European tundra for tool manufacture and lodge construction and as fuel. Perhaps, as in medieval Iceland, these resources were so dear that driftwood cast up on specific beaches was considered the property of designated families.4 Woe to anyone who took wood off the wrong beach! Tree trunks and branches from North America that washed ashore along with the annual migrations of birds and sea mammals would have been clues that there were forests and lands beyond the horizon.

  Winds from polar high-pressure systems that formed over the glaciated areas of western Europe would have drained into subtropical lows, creating unsettled weather patterns. During warmer seasons the more marked temperature gradient between air from the ice fields and air from over the warmer seawater would have tended to produce more offshore surface winds as they collided.5

  The movement of ice is a constant battle between wind and sea currents.6 Most of a berg is below the waterline, where currents sculpt it into a keel. Bergs’ skyward surfaces resist the wind and act as sails. On calm days they drift along with the current, but strong winds can direct their movement. As with a sailboat, if the wind blows with the sea current, the ice moves rapidly; if the breezes and currents balance, the ice does not move. Westerly winds would have generally pushed ice floes north and east, where they would have piled up on the Celtic and Aquitaine coasts and built westward along the Cantabrian coast. But a strong east or south wind would have sent the ice moving back out to sea.

  During colder LGM phases the pack ice was likely still out at sea in the early fall, but currents and increasing onshore storms eventually would have brought it, with the help of high tides, onto the beach, where it would have been grounded until spring. Winds that blew parallel to the shore would have carried the ice pack along it, while onshore winds would have held the ice fast to the shore and might have caused it to crush and pile. Offshore winds would have split open-water channels or leads parallel to the coast into the ice pack and shifted it seaward.

  The leads could have been several yards to several miles wide and opened only briefly or up to weeks at a time. After a lead opened, new, salty ice would form an apron that built outward from its margins toward the center until the entire lead was covered. Ice aprons are thickest near the lead edge and gradually thin outward. Transitions between weak and safe ice can be observed as distinct color changes that represent different stages of ice development. When an ice apron grew thick enough to support a person it could have served as a smooth avenue for foot travel.

  By winter, when the ice was thick enough that it did not break, its topography and movement would have been of concern to a hunter. In some areas winter ice might break into huge chunks piled high along pressure ridges, sometimes miles-long cracks in the ice caused by heating and cooling. In other areas older ice went through several seasons of warming that sculpted it into gently undulating surfaces and vast, flat expanses that remained unbroken all winter. Salts dissolve out of polar ice during summer thaws, so when melted this older ice would have provided freshwater for drinking and cooking.

  By late spring the floes would have broken apart, creating ice islands of varying size. Large islands moved with the current, while smaller islands (called pans) were pushed by the wind. If there was no wind the ice moved together, but if a wind was contrary to the sea current the ice sizes would intermix. Some islands were so large that their movement was imperceptible, and hunters would have to be extra vigilant or face the possibility of being set adrift on an ice raft. An experienced hunter would keep an eye on the current by throwing chunks of ice in the water, watching their direction and speed of drift. If the chunks floated away, the island was likely stable, but if they stayed alongside, the island was likely moving with the current.

  There are many Inuit stories of hunters who were trapped on the ocean ice and unable to reach land. Some survived for months; others were not so fortunate and drifted away, never to be heard from again. An elderly friend of Dennis’s at Point Barrow was quick to point out, however, that no one from the town had been lost on the ice for several years because GPS handheld receivers and cell phones are now part of standard hunting equipment. When well-equipped New Age hunters become stranded they simply call home, and someone, perhaps in a helicopter, comes to the rescue. These new technologies conveniently come at a time when global warming has made pack ice unpredictable and dangerous. Traditional hunters now run a higher risk of being trapped on ice, and without these satellite technologies many would be cast away on the open sea. Similarly, the LGM’s shifting climates and ice conditions required new technologies for survival, but many people were likely lost to the ice or sea while they were being developed. Perhaps the skin boat is analogous to the helicopter.

  Weather was another thing that was necessary to keep track of. Early hunting cultures learned commonsense ways to predict the weather on the basis of various atmospheric conditions and no doubt keenly observed important indicators of change—changing wind directions and intensity, for example, or the twinkling of stars before a powerful storm. Light rings around the sun or moon indicate approaching wet weather. Haze, fog, and clouds frequently precede storms and indicate the direction from which the storm will emerge. Elongated clouds stretching out at right angles to the wind indicate an advancing storm front. Abnormal rising or falling of the tide or increased surf warns of an approaching windstorm. Weather predictions can also be made on the basis of animal behavior. For instance, wolves howl when the atmospheric pressure rises; seals basking for long periods indicates good weather. On the other hand, if seals rise only briefly to the sea surface and then disappear, there might be an approaching storm.

  If a storm approached while a hunter was in a boat along the ice edge, he could make a quick retreat into a lead to find calmer waters. A light, flexible skin boat could have been pulled onto the ice and turned on its side, perhaps near a pressure ridge that blocked the wind, to provide a quick shelter. If it appeared that the weather was going to set in for a long spell, the hunter might have
used a sail or skin tarp to expand the shelter and snow blocks for additional protection.

  Oil or blubber would have been used for heating, cooking, and light. All that was needed was a shallow container or lamp to hold the fuel. The container could have been as simple as a depression chipped into the ice or, on land, dug into the ground. A skin could be placed in the depression to form a bowl, keeping porous ground from absorbing the oil. A wick could have been made from fine wood shavings, moss, or even shreds of the skin, and moving more of it into the fuel would decrease the intensity of the flame. Hanging a slab of fat over the flame in such a lamp can keep it burning unattended for many hours: when the oil in the container becomes low, the exposed wick burns higher and melts more oil from the fat above.7

  WE’VE BEEN TO NEW YORK!

  In the summer of 1968, while I was directing an excavation near Point Barrow, Alaska, an Iñupiat hunter told me that a couple of men from his village wanted to speak with me. Several weeks later two fellows showed up at the site. They approached me and without any introduction announced, “We’ve been to New York.” A bit nonplussed, I responded, “That’s nice. What were you doing in New York?” The answer was, “Coast Guard took us.” Confused, I asked how this had happened. The answer was, “Icelandic Navy gave us to the U.S. Coast Guard.” This was the start of an intriguing hour-long conversation in which they recounted that they had been spring hunting on the edge of the ice when the ice broke up and set them adrift. They survived by hunting seals while their ice island traversed the polar sea, skirted the North Pole, and entered the Denmark Strait along the east coast of Greenland. As they drifted south, the floe had begun to shrink rapidly and they had gotten “a bit nervous.” Fortunately they were sighted and picked up by the Icelandic Coast Guard, who transferred them to the U.S. Coast Guard. They spent a few days in New York, where they saw many wondrous sites before they were returned to Point Barrow.

  From our point of view, they had survived an extraordinary hardship on an ice floe for several months with only the equipment they had brought hunting. However, by the time they told me their story, the rigors of the ordeal had come to seem relatively insignificant compared to having been to New York!

  A few years ago I was back in Point Barrow. Now that we were developing our Solutrean hypothesis, I wanted to get more details of how they had survived on the ice. A friend at an elder care home remembered the hunters and their adventure, but he had few details, and the castaways had long since passed away. Dennis

  Seals and great auks would have produced many pounds of fat or blubber. The oil could be rendered by placing strips of blubber in a container or on a non-porous skin and allowing the oil to ooze out naturally. This process goes faster on warm, sunny days. If oil was needed more quickly the blubber could be placed near a fire and squeezed out by hand. Moreover, blubber strips would burn like logs if placed in a fire.

  Along with their use as fuel, animal fats would have been excellent for waterproofing many objects, in particular clothing and skin boat coverings. Seal oil can keep a boat made of bearded sealskin waterproof for several weeks, but eventually the boat will need to be hauled out, dried, and re-oiled. Celtic mariners used boats known as currachs, made of cow skins stretched over wooden frames, for unknown millennia. Currachs remained sea-worthy for several months when treated with sheep tallow.8 Bovid hides were available to Solutrean people, along with excellent sources of waterproofing oil.

  Though the ice pack would have been a world of frozen water, freshwater could be had by applying heat and was even found seasonally in meltwater ponds. Freshwater can be melted from snow piled around a depression and collected from troughs chipped in the ice near a fire. These troughs are also handy sources of water while cooking. Brave souls can melt snow with their body heat by placing it in a pouch next to their skin.

  During a storm the locations of leads can change, as old ones close and new ones form elsewhere. Finding a new lead or the ice edge is relatively easy, for the difference in temperature between the warmer seawater and the ice causes a thick fog bank, which can be seen for miles, to hang over the open water. Moreover, on overcast days sea ice reflects against the clouds as dull white, while dark streaks indicate an open lead below, and snow-covered land reflects as brilliant white. If newly fallen snow covers the aprons in the leads, they reflect as unusually bright pathways in the clouds.

  Traveling on and around sea ice and open water would have been relatively simple, especially on clear days. Beyond celestial positioning, mariners could navigate by the Picos de Europa, which loom 2,500 meters above the southern horizon, providing a constant landward marker. Given the earth’s curvature, the mountains could be seen from 50 kilometers or so out on the ice or sea. Fixes on distinct landmarks such as this would have provided destination directions. When landmarks shifted position on the horizon, it was a warning that the ice was beginning to move.

  When landfast ice formed during the winter, it greatly expanded the available geography for pedestrian hunting. In fact, there would have been little difference between hunting on snow-covered ground and on landfast winter ice, and the latter’s return of seal meat, fuel oil, and other animal products would likely have been much greater, as land mammals grow leaner throughout the winter.

  HUNTING THE ICE EDGE

  One of the greatest impacts of the LGM was the forcing of life zones southward by hundreds of kilometers and the reorganization of those zones into disharmonious biospheres. Species that now flourish in northern waters would have found themselves displaced by the expansion of the polar ice cap and the formation of the annual pack ice, to such glacial refugia as the Celtic-Armorican-Aquitaine coastlines and the north coast of the Iberian Peninsula.9

  Other than harbor seals, the seals of the North Atlantic are generally associated with ice-edge environments for breeding and birthing during late winter and into spring. When the ice breaks up in the late spring, the seals stay with the edge or with floating islands as the ice retreats northward, and they return as the ice builds southward in the fall.

  Since seal pups are weaned within a few weeks and are not particularly weather dependent for growth, we suspect that the LGM’s southward shift of rookeries did not affect the birthing season to any great degree and that seasons of birthing, breeding, and molting—the periods when seals are the most congregated and most vulnerable to predation—have not changed significantly through time.

  Seals can have a dozen or more breathing holes, and they start making them when the ice begins forming in the fall so they can break through with their heads. As the ice thickens they keep the holes open by gnawing and scratching. Holes can be identified by an elevated circular platform caused by water pouring over the ice and freezing when the seal surfaces. Passing seals use any breathing hole they encounter, so hunters can return after a kill and hunt again. A patient hunter with a pike or a self-barbed spear could get several in a day from a single hole. Hunters in groups might tend holes scattered across the ice to increase their chances of getting seals. Consequently, during the winter when the ice was solid, whole extended families might have moved offshore for prolonged periods to collect a supply of food and oil.

  During the winter adult female seals tend to stay beneath the ice or inside the dens in heavy ice beyond the leads. Dens can hold several seals and their pups but would have been hard to find. So despite the bounty dens held, major winter hunting activities probably centered on breathing holes for seals and leads and open-water areas for overwintering birds.

  When the sea ice began to fragment and open in late spring, seals would have appeared in greater numbers. Throughout the spring and summer they sleep on the ice and bask in the sunshine. During these seasons onshore winds push unconsolidated floes toward shore, and many hundreds of basking seals can be seen scattered across the horizon. Scenes such as this would have tempted any hunter to consider ways to get out among the pans and may well have initiated experimentation in the use of watercraft to harvest nature’s i
ce garden.

  The principle seal-hunting methods among Arctic peoples are clubbing, netting, spearing with a barbed pike, and harpooning, alone or in combination. The choice of method varies with the species of seal, the prevailing geographic and climatic conditions, and the season. Clubbing is confined to gregarious species, such as the gray seal, which unlike the harp or spotted varieties sometimes establishes rookeries on the beach well above sea level. Ringed seals can be clubbed on the ice if a series of holes are plugged and the seals are forced to come to a central hole for breathing. When a hapless creature appears, it is clubbed to death and dragged out of the water.

  For the Solutreans, hunting seals in leads or while they floated on pans along the ice margin would have required either darts propelled by a spear thrower or bows and arrows. Parts of spear throwers have been found in Solutrean middens, but we are less confident that they had bows and arrows in the areas around the Bay of Biscay. A spear thrower could be used effectively by a hunter either standing on the ice or seated in a watercraft. Retrieving dead seals would have been possible for pedestrian hunters without special equipment if the animals snagged on the ice edge while floating in the current of the salty water. If the apron was too weak to walk on, the carcass could be retrieved with a pike or a hook, which might have been as simple as a branch tied to a line.

  Other trapping techniques include the use of nets made of hair, which are stretched across narrow channel inlets to catch seals coming and going. At least one of the pennipeds painted on the walls of Cosquer Cave is covered by a series of lines that could represent netting (figure 5.11g). Other seals are depicted with lines that probably represent spears penetrating their bodies.