State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

The New World

Archaeological expedition in the Peruvian Andes (Kurt Rademaker, University of Maine at Orono).
Archaeological expedition in the Peruvian Andes (Kurt Rademaker, University of Maine at Orono).

 

On a man in the mountains, dusk falls;

Shadows seep upward and spread.

Scaling the black, chiseled walls,

He silently seeks the dead.

 

The Andes, sharp spine of Peru,

Shelter small secrets of stone.

That night, an ancient milieu:

Obsidian, jasper, bone.

 

Into deep history, peer:

Sharp edges of tools, human craft!

Adventurous people lived here,

Climbed, feasted, laughed.

 

Archaeological expedition in the Peruvian Andes (Kurt Rademaker, UMaine)
Archaeological expedition in the Peruvian Andes (Kurt Rademaker, UMaine)

 ____________________________________

Further reading:

Science-2014-Gibbons-567-8 (pdf)

“New Sites Bring the Earliest Americans Out of the Shadows,” Ann Gibbons, Science, 2014

This is one in a series of poems based on science news, written by Katherine Allen, a researcher in geochemistry and paleoclimate at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Science for the Planet: In these short video explainers, discover how scientists and scholars across the Columbia Climate School are working to understand the effects of climate change and help solve the crisis.
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Merve
9 years ago

But this was the state of the world can be described as beautiful, thank you.