Deep in Norway’s Jotunheimen mountains, archaeologists are uncovering evidence of the region’s ancient inhabitants and their way of life that have remained hidden in ice for thousands of years.
Recently, researchers exploring the region as mountain ice rapidly melts uncovered four dozen prehistoric arrows, including an exceptionally well-preserved specimen that is believed to date back as far as 6,000 years.
The discoveries are being made in the Kvitingskjølen region of the Jotunheimen range, where a team of archaeologists with Innlandet County Municipality’s Glacial Archaeology Programme recently spent three weeks surveying the Langfonne, Storfonne, and Handklefonne ice patches for signs of ancient human presence.
Secrets of the Ice
The archaeological team is better known as Secrets of the Ice, and their ongoing work has revealed an unprecedented number of ancient discoveries in recent years.
Among the most recent finds is a slate arrowhead of unusually skilled craftsmanship, revealing a finely worked projectile point with portions of its original wooden shaft, as well as evidence of the ancient cordage that bound them together long ago, still intact.
Although the uniquely preserved discoveries are helping to shed light on the ancient people of western Scandinavia, the team’s recent discoveries of close to 50 ancient projectiles in the region are part of an archaeological trend that has emerged in recent years, which has many experts both excited and concerned.
Glacial Archaeology: A Troubling Trend
Back in 2006, when glacial archaeology began in the Norwegian county of Innlandet, most of the artifacts that were being found were less than two millennia old—among the most common finds were artifacts from the region’s Viking Age.
However, with time, much older artifacts would begin to surface, revealing ancient discoveries from the region’s Stone and Bronze Ages, as increasingly older layers of the region’s ancient ice receded.
Since the effort began two decades ago, archaeologists now say they have documented 73 sites in the area, revealing more than 5,000 artifacts. Among the discoveries are ancient bows and arrows, as well as clothing and equipment used long ago by reindeer hunters who once stalked their prey in the Jotunheimen mountains.
Normally, organic materials like wood, hide, sinew, and textiles would have perished long ago. Preserved by the frozen conditions in the region, these marvels from the ancient world have been uniquely preserved, offering archaeologists a rare look at the lives of their ancient makers.
Racing Against Time
As these remarkably well-preserved artifacts emerge from the ice, exposure to air and sunlight can cause them to deteriorate rapidly, and so team members with Secrets of the Ice are presently racing to locate and preserve them.
Given the amount of glacial recession that has occurred since the team’s work began two decades ago, researchers estimate that ongoing melt could lead to ice that has long covered archaeological sites in the region to disappear entirely within the next two decades.
The melting ice, therefore, presents an unusual paradox, where ancient evidence of human activity in Norway’s Jotunheimen mountains is finally being revealed, providing a remarkable opportunity for archaeologists. Yet at the same time, environmental changes are steadily destroying the frozen landscape that has preserved them for millennia.
The Secrets of the Ice team member Espen Finstad recently described the team’s findings in a posting on its website, noting their observations of not only an ancient record of human activity that is slowly surfacing after thousands of years, but also the changes that have made such discoveries possible.
“We have been at the edge of the ice,” Finstad wrote. “We have seen it happening. And we are witnesses to a rapidly changing archaeological landscape.”
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.