Filters:
Group: Hittites (Hittite Empire), (New) Kingdom of the
People: Jehu of Israel

West Antarctica (1108 – 1251 CE): Polar …

Years: 1108 - 1251

West Antarctica (1108 – 1251 CE): Polar Plateaus, Ice Ranges, and Unpeopled Frontiers

Geographic and Environmental Context

West Antarctica includes the South Shetland Islands, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the continental block extending to the Polar Plateau.
It encompasses:

  • Mountain systems: the Central Transantarctic Mountains, Queen Maud, Whitmore, and Thiel Mountains, the Heritage and Executive Committee Ranges, and the Ellsworth Highlands.

  • Plateaus: Rockefeller, Hollick-Kenyon, and Joerg Plateaus.

  • Marie Byrd Land, fringed by the Ross and Amundsen Sea coasts.

  • Ice shelves: Ronne–Filchner, western Ross, and coastal shelves fringing Marie Byrd Land.

  • The region remained uninhabited by humans, dominated by glaciers, nunataks, and seasonal polynyas.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

  • The Medieval Warm Period (c. 950–1250) brought only marginal changes in this high-latitude environment.

  • Antarctic interior temperatures remained among the coldest on Earth.

  • Sea ice extent may have contracted slightly during summer months, allowing seasonal productivity in polynyas.

  • Katabatic winds swept down from the Polar Plateau, reinforcing ice flow into surrounding shelves.

Societies and Political Developments

  • No human settlement or contact.

  • The region lay entirely outside the voyaging or geographic knowledge of medieval peoples in Europe, Africa, or Polynesia.

Economy and Trade

  • No human economy.

  • Ecological productivity centered on:

    • Krill swarms forming the keystone species.

    • Penguin colonies (Adélie and chinstrap on the Peninsula; emperor penguins on the ice edge).

    • Seals (crabeater, leopard, and Weddell) breeding on sea ice.

    • Whales feeding in the Ross and Amundsen Seas during austral summers.

Subsistence and Technology

  • Not applicable to humans.

  • Animal adaptations:

    • Penguins nested communally on ice-free coasts.

    • Seals fasted during breeding seasons.

    • Whales timed migrations to coincide with krill blooms.

    • Lichens and mosses persisted in ice-free nunatak niches.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

  • Glacial systems: vast ice streams flowed from the Polar Plateau into the Ross and Ronne–Filchner shelves.

  • Marine migrations: whales and seals circulated through Ross, Weddell, and Amundsen Seas.

  • Bird flyways: seabirds ranged between subantarctic islands (South Shetlands, South Georgia) and Antarctic rookeries.

Belief and Symbolism

  • No direct human cosmologies tied to this land, though distant cultures (Byzantine, Islamic, Polynesian, Andean) carried myths of southern continents.

Adaptation and Resilience

  • Ecosystem resilience hinged on krill and seasonal polynyas.

  • Penguin and seal colonies thrived in undisturbed conditions.

  • Vegetation of lichens and mosses clung to nunataks, surviving in microclimates.

Long-Term Significance

By 1251, West Antarctica remained a pristine ecological reserve:

  • Marine and avian life flourished around seasonal polynyas and nutrient upwellings.

  • Its glacial interior and plateaus remained untouched by human presence or knowledge.

  • The region stood as one of the last great unpeopled frontiers of Earth, awaiting discovery many centuries later.