Thawing permafrost, rising seas, droughts, and wildfires aren’t only reshaping modern life; they’re erasing the physical record of past civilizations. Climate change threatens millions of archaeological sites worldwide, from Viking settlements in Greenland to Scythian tombs in Siberia, and the stakes are immense. Once gone, these irreplaceable windows into human history can’t be recovered. The figures here look at how different climate processes accelerate loss, often at staggering speed.
Click on to explore how climate change is reshaping archaeology across the globe.