Climate change is destroying Arctic cultural heritage sites

Climate change is rapidly destroying cultural heritage sites across the Arctic, as exemplified in a 17^th century “whalers’ graveyard” which provides invaluable insights into early whalers’ way of life, according to a study published May 20, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Lise Loktu of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research and Elin Therese Brødholt of Oslo University Hospital, Norway.

In our changing climate, the Arctic is warming faster than the global average. Rising temperatures and sea levels are linked to rapidly thawing permafrost and increased coastal erosion, which pose a danger to Arctic archaeological sites, threatening both scientific knowledge and cultural heritage. However, climate-driven risks to these sites have not been thoroughly examined.

In this study, researchers explored preservation patterns at the 17^th-century whaling site of Likneset in the Svalbard archipelago. Comparing the results of excavations from the 1980s to those from the 2010s, the team observed a significant increase in erosional damage to grave sites along the coastline. The most dramatic decline was seen in textiles, which were found to be well-preserved in the 1980s excavations, but were almost completely degraded by the 2010s. This study also confirmed that graves at Likneset preserve detailed information about the illnesses, mortality, and working conditions of early Arctic whalers. For example, the skeletal remains, which composed mostly of young adult men, revealed extensive physical stresses and malnutrition, and it was likely this that caused the whalers’ deaths, rather than any specific trauma.

These results reveal rapid, climate-driven degradation of a valuable archaeological site in Svalbard, similar to trends observed in other Arctic regions. Altogether, these data suggest that current Arctic cultural management practices, which prioritize a limited selection of heritage sites, will not be able to keep up with the pace of climate impacts. The authors acknowledge the limited sample size used for the study and hope that future research will compare other burial sites in the region. They suggest that Arctic cultural heritage policies should be revised with special attention to these highly threatened archaeological assets.

The authors add: “These skeletons show us the human cost of Europe’s first oil industry. As permafrost thaws and coastal erosion accelerates, we are losing entire archives of human lives that can never be replaced. We are not only losing landscapes, but also the human stories preserved within them.”

“What we are seeing in these skeletons is the physical imprint of one of Europe’s first global industries. We can see how labour, diet, disease, and mobility left physical traces in the people who took part in early Arctic whaling. Many of these men died very young, yet already show clear signs of heavy physical strain, disease, and nutritional stress.”

Video interview:

Full version with captions: https://plos.io/4npyVp7

Full version without captions: https://plos.io/4nlVI5f

Short version with captions: https://plos.io/4uAIDaA

Short version without captions: https://plos.io/48XEqWf

Transcript: https://plos.io/4ufsOGU

Video interview caption: An archive on the brink: Lise Lotku reveals what a 16th century whalers' burial site can teach us about working-class life in Europe's first oil industry, and gives a stark warning about the threat climate change poses to this unique cultural heritage treasure.

Video interview credit: Anthony Lewis (www.anthony-lewis.com), PLOS, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/3R629NP

Citation: Loktu L, Brødholt ET (2026) Skeletons in the permafrost: Exploring climate-driven heritage loss and occupational health at the early modern whaling burial site of Likneset, Svalbard. PLoS One 21(5): e0347033. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347033

Author countries: Norway.

Funding: Lise Loktu received funding (NOK 550,000; grant 23/33) from the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund to conduct new osteological analyses of skeletons from the whaling period (17th–18th century), excavated at the Likneset burial ground (ID 93705) in Smeerenburgfjorden during the 1985–1990 field campaigns (https://www.miljovernfondet.no/en/front-page/).