'Amazing' archeological find in Yukon's melting ice patches an intact atlatl dart

At first, Jennifer Herkesdidn't realize what had been found she thought it was a piece of an atlatldart.

"I thought, 'Oh yeah, that's neat,'" she recalled.

Then she sawit wasn't just a piece it was the whole spear.

"My heart rate started increasing, and I got goose bumps all over. I'd never seen anything like that before, it was amazing," saidHerkes, who is the heritage manager for the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon.

"The feathers, the sinew, the sap they would have used as, like, a glue to attach the stone point to the wood shaft all of it is completely intact."

Herkesbelieves it's the first full atatlspear ever found in Yukon. It's believed to be at least 1,000 years old.

The ancient hunting tool is just the latest remarkable find from an area that's now renowned for remarkable archeological finds the Yukon ice patches, near Carcross. The area has been nominated as a potential UNESCO world heritage site.

Over millennia,woodland caribou would gather on the ice patches during the summer months. It was therefore an important area for Indigenous hunters,who sometimes left their tools behind.

Many of those tools frozen for centuries under ice and snow are now being uncoveredas the ice patches melt due to climate change.

A few weeks before the spearwas found, archeologists made another discovery in the ice patches a ground-stone point. Herkes said it's notable because chipped-stone tools were more common in Yukon.

"So that was a pretty amazing find," she said.

'Come take a look'

The atlatldart was found a little over a week agoby a helicopter pilot whohad flown some researchers to the ice patches.

"We all got out of the helicopter and we each went our own separate ways, and within a few seconds he shouted out to come take a look," said Herkes.

"[Lying] at the base of the ice patch was this fully intact, long, five-foot-or-more spear."

It's a major find because all the components are there. Researchers can study the materials to learn more about theresources used by Indigenous people at thattime.

It also has non-scientific value, Herkessays.

"When you have a full complete spear like that, it really allows people to connect with their heritage and what their ancestors were doing on the land, thousands of years ago," she said.

"Everybody gets really excited. I don't know how many times I've had to pull my phone out to show pictures to different people.It's a pretty great way to bring the community together."

The spear is now in cold storage.Herkes said the First Nation and Yukon's heritage branch will look at how to best preserve it over the long term.

"We'll do our best to keep it as fully intact as possible, because Ithink that's where the true value lies in being able to have that fully intact piece of history," she said.

With files from Mike Rudyk