As Swiss glaciers melt, historical objects buried under the ice emerge

As climate change causes Switzerland's glaciers to melt rapidly, objects long buried under the ice have begun to emerge. The Glacier Garden in Lucerne has opened an exhibition called 'Treasury of Ice' featuring these items.

The exhibition includes an ancient hunter's bow, a Roman-era statue, a mountaineer's broken helmet and a cow skull. It also displays an empty mayonnaise tube, wine bottles, shoes, an old Swiss army knife and ski equipment.

According to Swiss glaciologists, the country's glacier area shrank by 5.5 percent this year, the second-largest decline since records began. Andreas Buri, director of the Glacier Garden, said the exhibition was organized to show the public the records preserved there before the glaciers disappear completely. He said some of the objects may simply be items people lost or discarded.

The exhibition also provides information on pollen grains frozen in the ice, greenhouse gases, and radioactive particles from nuclear tests conducted in the mid-20th century. Smoke residue and coal remnants from a wildfire caused by drought and extreme heat around 500 years ago have also been found in the ice.

The objects are displayed atop white boxes used to transport samples from the mountains to laboratories. The exhibition also features a melting cylinder of ice extracted from the glacier and data showing melting rates.