Norwegian mountains are full of time capsules. Thousands of years of human and ecological history are preserved in the remnants of ice. Now this treasure of information is in danger of disappearing unless we act
NORTH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
On a day more than 3,000 years ago, someone lost a shoe in what we now call Langfonne in the mountains of Jotunhendum. The shoe was 28 centimeters long, which corresponds to modern sizes of 36 or 37. The owner probably considered the lost shoe good, but on September 17, 2007 it was found again – barely intact.
Around 2000 BC, a red-winged fly died at Skirådalskollen in the Dovrefjell mountain range. Its small body was quickly buried under an iceberg. When it reappeared 4000 years later, its internal organs were still intact.
In recent years, hundreds of such discoveries have been made in the ice sheets, revealing traces of hunting, trapping, traffic, animals and plant life – tiny, frozen moments. of the past.
Annual special discovery
Norway has soil that is often quite acidic, meaning that organic matter was in the past poorly preserved in the soil. Glaciers often move – and crush – what they hide below the surface. Ice plates, on the other hand, are relatively stable and thus create special conditions for the preservation of organic matter.
“Objects and relics of animals and human activity have been found that we did not even know existed. They included everything from horse harness and clothing to arrowheads made of shells, wooden shafts and feathers. Not a year goes by without surprising discoveries that shift the boundaries of our understanding,” said Birgitte Skar, archaeologist and associate professor at the NTNU University Museum (under the University of Science and Technology). and Norwegian Technology) said. She is one of the researchers behind a new report (in Norwegian with abstract in English) summarizes the state of knowledge in Norway’s glacial archeology.
The report describes a series of wonderful findings but also paints a bleak picture.
Only some of the ice sheets containing potential discoveries have been systematically investigated over time, and they are barely studied in northern Norway.
Short-term financing leads to a lack of continuity in monitoring and securing ice artifacts. Some research has been done on the find, but it barely scratches the surface. In the meantime, all this knowledge is disappearing at a record rate.
The The most recent surveys from the Norwegian Directorate of Water Resources and Energy (NVE) shows that 364 square kilometers of snow and glaciers in Norway have melted since 2006.
The monitoring program has expired
“A survey based on satellite images taken in 2020 shows that more than 40% of the 10 selected ice patches with known findings have melted. These numbers represent a significant threat to the preservation of ice-based discoveries, not to mention ice as a climate archive,” said Skar.
“The time has come to establish a national monitoring program that systematically uses remote sensing and secures archaeological finds and biological remains from the ice sheets. We should also use this program to collect glacial data from different parts of the country, as ice sheets can provide detailed data on how the climate has evolved over the past 7500 years.” she said.
Unimaginable possibilities
The oldest discovery to emerge from ice in Norway is a 6,100-year-old arrow shaft. Like the shoe, it is also found at Langfonne in the Jotunhe Model Mountains.
Findings from here and elsewhere suggest that these areas were continuously used as hunting grounds during long periods of ice. This means they provide an unparalleled source of archaeological information.
“We are beginning to assess whether ice in some places can survive the warm period after the last ice age, which means that the bottom layer of ice could be a remnant of the iceberg. tapes from that period. This capability offers unprecedented opportunities to track climate history and operate on these hunting grounds even back in time,” said Skar.
“We must remember that the oldest population in Norway is descended from reindeer hunters who hunted in northern Europe and southern Scandinavia near the edge of the ice sheet, during the latter part of the ice age. In other words, these are people who can hunt large ungulates and understand animal behavior patterns,” adds Skar.
Reindeer forage for ice sheets during hot and dusty summer weather, and the Sami people have also used these areas for a variety of purposes, including marking calves, milking and separating animals. However, the use of domestic ice by the Sami has been largely unexplored.
“The use of Sami will likely expand the known uses and importance of snow patches. Skar says it is imperative to gather information from these tradition-bearers.
Mummified birds and animals
Human activity over millennia isn’t the only story revealed by ice fragments found. Animal and plant carcasses also provide new insights into ice as an ecosystem, such as reindeer bones from 4,200 years ago with bone marrow intact, as well as a number of birds and mammals that have been preserved. whole mummification.
According to Jørgen Rosvold, these finds are often very well preserved and can provide genetic information about some past species. They can show how species have responded to climate change and anthropogenic disturbances in the past.
Rosvold also participated in the report. He is a biologist and assistant research director at the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research (NINA). He explains that ice is one of the least studied and understood ecosystems in the world, so we know very little about ice as a habitat.
“Our findings show that mountain ice has provided important habitat for many mountain species for thousands of years right up to the present day. Rosvold says:
“We used to think of ice as desolate and lifeless and therefore not very important. That’s changing right now, but it’s urgent. A large amount of unique matter is melting and disappearing forever. Searches can provide important information about the history of both humans and nature,” he said.
RESEARCH METHODS
Literature overview
RESEARCH SUBJECTS
Do not apply
ARTICLE TITLE
Glasialarkeologi i Norge (Archaeology in Norway)
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
February 25, 2022
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