The problem is that the archive is now under threat: Due to global warming, the Ararat ice cap is shrinking at an accelerating pace, and with every summer, information is lost that very few other sources could provide. To collect this information, the project brought experts from the fields of archaeology and glaciology together in a joint undertaking.

The ice cap was surveyed using a combination of ground-based radio echo sounding and active seismic techniques. This method allows researchers to map the thickness and subglacial bed of the ice. "Despite wind and cold, we obtained all the data we need," says Dr. Coen Hofstede of the Alfred Wegener Institute, who was responsible for the measurements on site. "Now we can determine where to drill the longest continuous ice core."

During the next expedition, the research team aims to recover the actual ice cores. If successful, the expedition would yield the first-ever ice core from Mount Ararat.

"This represents an entirely new source of data for archaeology," says Dr. Achim Lichtenberger, project leader from the University of Münster. "So far, we've had to depend on what lies in the ground. The ice, on the other hand, could preserve a continuous chronicle of human activity, layer by layer over millennia."

The ice also holds valuable data for glaciology. Preserved within its layers are the composition of past atmospheres, the transport of dust and traces of earlier volcanic eruptions. This could allow researchers to reconstruct, for example, how well-known climate phases such as the Roman Climate Optimum or the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) played out in this particular region.