The mummified bodies of soldiers who fell in the First World War 100 years ago are still being uncovered as glaciers melt – and experts say there could be many more to come.
Corpses emerge every time there is a hot summer in Trentino, a rugged part of the Italian Alps where countless men were shot, starved or froze to death in a three-year campaign.
Whenever the gruesome finds appear, archaeologists must act within hours – because not only do the bodies decompose, they are also looted by opportunistic thieves.
Dr Franco Nicolis, the director of the Trentino’s Office of Archaeological Heritage, has blamed global warming for the surge in corpses found in the last decade.
The last two soldiers, found side-by-side in 2012 on the Presena Glacier, were as young as 16 and 18 when they went to fight on the bitter Italian front and were buried by fellow fighters in a crevice.
Historians have been collecting material from the mountains ever since, with regular finds since the early 1990s.
Discoveries have included clothes, shoes and a remarkably intact letter from a soldier to his lover.