A Frozen Graveyard: The Sad Tales of Antarctica's Deaths

BBC ^ | September 14, 2018 | Martha Henriques

[SunkenCiv]

1800s: Mystery of the Chilean bones

At Livingston Island, among the South Shetlands off the Antarctic Peninsula, a human skull and femur have been lying near the shore for 175 years. They are the oldest human remains ever found in Antarctica. The bones were discovered on the beach in the 1980s. Chilean researchers found that they belonged to a woman who died when she was about 21 years old. She was an indigenous person from southern Chile, 1,000km (620 miles) away. Analysis of the bones suggested that she died between 1819 and 1825. The earlier end of that range would put her among the very first people to have been in Antarctica... The traditional canoes of the indigenous Chileans couldn't have supported her on such a long voyage through what can be incredibly rough seas... "There's no evidence for an independent Amerindian presence in the South Shetlands," says Michael Pearson, an Antarctic heritage consultant and independent researcher. "It's not a journey you'd make in a bark canoe." The original interpretation by the Chilean researchers was that she was an indigenous guide to the sealers travelling from the northern hemisphere to the Antarctic islands that had been newly discovered by William Smith in 1819... Sealers did have a close relationship with the indigenous people of southern Chile, says Melisa Salerno, an archaeologist of the Argentinean Scientific and Technical Research Council (Conicet). Sometimes they would exchange seal skins with each other. It's not out of the question that they traded expertise and knowledge, too. But the two cultures' interactions weren't always friendly. "Sometimes it was a violent situation," says Salerno. "The sealers could just take a woman from one beach and later leave her far away on another." ...

[SunkenCiv]

subtitled, "Beneath layers of snow and ice on the world's coldest continent, there may be hundreds of people buried forever. Martha Henriques investigates their stories."

Deception Island | Antarctica | Atlas Obscura | Tourists enjoy a warm volcanic bath Wikimedia (Wikicommons)

[SunkenCiv]

Cousteau and company went to Antarctica and filmed there, including at the abandoned Chilean base (it had been destroyed by volcanic eruptions in 1967) on Deception Island. I confess, I didn't read this whole thing, but there appear to be only three examples, and Costeau showed the Chilean cemetery in that show.

[Red Badger]

I’d imagine it’s very chilly in Antarctica .....................

[cuban leaf]

...there may be hundreds of people buried forever...

---

And a lot more than that in the graveyards around the world. The whole point is that they are expected to be buried “forever”.

[SunkenCiv]

some YouTubes about Deception Island, including one by some Flat Earth flathead.

http://www.google.com/search?q=deception+island+site:youtube.com

[Mercat]

“She was an indigenous person from southern Chile, 1,000km (620 miles) away. ”

I don’t understand how she can indigenous AND be hundreds of miles from home at the same time.

[dainbramaged]

Joshua Slocum wrote about the Yahgan Indians of Tierra del Fuego in his book "Sailing Alone Around the World" (1900). He was warned they were dangerous so he sprinkled tacks on the deck of his sloop as a burglar alarm. It worked.
He also learned not to eat green plums and cheese at the same setting.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

I wonder why, if the climate hysterics are to be taken so seriously, nobody’s talking about colonizing Antarctica (not to mention the barely populated Arctic and sub-Arctic regions as well). An entire continent with almost nobody on it, yet the temperate and tropical parts of the world are bursting at the seams. There’s obviously plenty of water, soon to be melting . . .

[Bonemaker]

And who were these “sealers”? Were they like “closers” at shyster auto dealerships?

[Big Red Badger]

Watched “March of the Penguins”
Yesterday,,,
That was Antarctica!

[steve8714]

Trump’s fault

[Ken Regis]

In the Antarctic, we called that area the “Banana Belt”

[Ken Regis]

I skied there.

[SunkenCiv]

One problem it has, it's miserably, unremittingly cold, even during the months it spends in 24 hour sunshine. Geothermal energy (from at least one volcano) might make a city-sized settlement pretty comfortably warm, and well-lit (from the electrical generation). But you'd want to have a backup plan (like a giant coal-burning pwer plant and six to eight months of coal supply, since delivery of coal would be impractical for a good chunk of the year), and there'd be no economic life for the place, unless Amazon opened a headquarters there. Maybe sell units to pensioners...

[SunkenCiv]

Because they don't wanna say "indian", so they use "indigenous", meaning indegous to Chile.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Whoa! That’s extremely cool!

[SunkenCiv]

They were an early NFL team which sucked.

[SunkenCiv]

8 Ball Bunny"

[SunkenCiv]

I’m not sure I’d eat green plums alone, either.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/549722-will-green-plums-hurt-your-stomach/

[Big Red Badger]

A more Viable settlement
Than the Moon or Mars,
But still not A Hawaiian VaCa!