“Planet Ice: Mysteries of the Ice Ages” is at the Senator John Heinz History Center through April 4. [Courtesy of the Senator John Heinz History Center]<\/p>\n
This summer, the region\u2019s coolest attraction is at the Senator John Heinz History Center.<\/p>\n
On these extraordinarily hot days, visitors have the opportunity to look back on Earth\u2019s prehistoric past in \u201cPlanet Ice: Mysteries of the Ice Ages,\u201d a new exhibit that uncovers how the Ice Ages shaped our world and its people.<\/p>\n
Produced in partnership with the Canadian Museum of Nature, \u201cPlanet Ice\u201d takes visitors on an epic journey spanning 80,000 years, exploring a frozen world transformed by glaciers, a changing climate, and people who adapted to survive.<\/p>\n
In this region, Ice Age people camped at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter outside Avella \u2013 the oldest site of human habitation in North America.<\/p>\n
The \u201cPlanet Ice\u201d exhibit reveals how the region\u2019s earliest residents lived off the land, hunted for food, and coexisted with \u201cmega\u201d animals like mastodon, short-faced bears, and American lions that once roamed the Pittsburgh area.<\/p>\n
Visitors can come face-to-face with these Ice Age giants through full-size skeletal casts and authentic artifacts, including a Buffalo Creek mastodon bone found just seven miles from Meadowcroft and selected remains of the famous Bridgeville mastodon.<\/p>\n
Highlights of the exhibit include:<\/p>\n
-More than 100 specimens, artifacts, and models, which are complemented by interactives and multimedia that explore the impacts of ice on people and the environment<\/p>\n
-Full scale skeletal casts of Ice Age animals like a mastodon, giant beaver, short-faced bear, and Smilodon \u2014 a saber-toothed cat that became extinct about 10,000 years ago<\/p>\n
-Tools and artifacts used over 1,000 years ago by the Tuniit and Thule-Inuit peoples in Canada\u2019s Arctic<\/p>\n
-Hands-on interactives,including a display that creates the illusion of a woolly mammoth or American lion emerging from a snow-filled landscape<\/p>\n
Artifacts made and used by the Ice Age people who lived at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter.<\/p>\n
-An atlatl station where visitors can use a prehistoric spear thrower to experience how Ice Age people hunted for food<\/p>\n
-Rare local discoveries connected to the region\u2019s prehistoric past on loan from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Bethany College<\/p>\n
The exhibit is open through April 4 and is included with regular museum admission.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlanet Ice: Mysteries of the Ice Ages\u201d was created by the Canadian Museum of Nature. For information on \u201cPlanet Ice\u201d and the Senator John Heinz History Center, go online to heinzhistorycenter.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Planet Ice: Mysteries of the Ice Ages” is at the Senator John Heinz History Center through April 4.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32489,18913,73,75,74,27326],"class_list":["post-233695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-ice-age","tag-meadowcroft-rockshelter","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-senator-john-heinz-history-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}