The first ice find from Innlandet County was a large Viking Age arrowhead discovered in 1935 in front av the Smørrstabbreen glacier in Jotunheimen, in an area newly exposed by melting. There was no arrow shaft mentioned in connection with this find but this should not surprise us. Smørrstabbreen is a large, moving glacier, so the fragile shaft was likely crushed in the ice, while the iron arrowhead was preserved by its greater internal strength.
This is the first post in a series on the trickle of archaeological ice finds from Innlandet County, Norway, prior to the first big ice melts in the 2000s.
(Photo: Olav Heggø, Museum of Cultural History)
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Here’s the sixth and final arrow from last week’s fieldwork at our site in the Jotunheimen Mountains! 🏹 This one still has its iron arrowhead attached, along with sinew and birch bark wrappings. ❤
The arrowhead dates this piece to the Viking Age, and the birch bark wrapping is also typical for that period.
In total, our team recovered six arrows from the site, spanning at least 5000 years of history. What a haul! #VikingAge #Archaeology #Jotunheimen #AncientArtifacts
Three of the six arrows our team recovered from last week`s site date back to the Early Iron Age, around 1500-2000 years ago. This one was found lying near the edge of the retreating ice.
In fact, all six arrows were discovered near the ice edge, in areas newly exposed by the melt. We’ve already conducted two major surveys here and collected everything that had previously melted out. So when our team returned last week, they only needed to focus on the newly revealed surface closest to the ice. ❄️
Exciting finds like these remind us of how much history is still hidden, waiting to be melt out!