The Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, has announced a three-year PhD scholarship in glacial archaeology. This is a great chance to work with our finds from the ice!🙂❄

Information (in Norwegian) on qualifications needed to apply, how to apply and who to contact for questions can be found here: https://www.khm.uio.no/om/organisasjon/styret/sakskart-og-protokoller/2024/sakskart/241101/s-21-24-kunngjoringstekst-stipendiat-fonnefunn.pdf ...

Before 2006, all the known archaeological ice finds in Innlandet County dated to the Iron Age or Medieval period. But everything changed in 2006, when a significant melt brought global warming to the forefront in our high mountains. In September of that year, our dedicated helper, hobby archaeologist Reidar Marstein, made the first groundbreaking discoveries at the Langfonne ice patch, uncovering two ancient arrows.

The arrow pictured here is crafted from a shoot of Fly Honeysuckle, with sinew still preserved around the front. Based on the shape of the slot, the arrowhead was originally stone. Radiocarbon dating revealed it’s from 1600 BC – the Early Bronze Age! ❄🏔️ (Post 1/9)

(Photo: Ann Christine Eek, Museum of Cultural History.) ...

At the end of the 1990s, hobby archaeologist Reidar Marstein from Lom (https://secretsoftheice.com/news/2019/11/14/reidar-marstein/) started visiting Storfonne ice patch in the Kvitingskjølen mountain range. He had a hunch that there could be archaeological finds here. He didn’t give up, even after several years without making finds, but the conditions with ‘large ice’ were working against him.

Then global warming started to impress itself upon the Innlandet mountain ice. The early 2000s marked the beginning of a marked and sustained retreat of ice in the high mountains. Especially 2002 stands out as a year with a very warm summer. This was also the year when Reidar’s efforts finally paid off. He found a scaring stick (https://secretsoftheice.com/news/2016/10/26/scaring-sticks/) near the edge of the Storfonne Ice Patch and reported the find to the county archaeologists. A radiocarbon-date showed that it was 1300 years old. Little did we know at the time, that this was just the beginning of a new and dramatic wave of ice finds here in Innlandet.

This is the sixth post in series on the slow trickle of archaeological ice finds from Innlandet County, Norway, prior to the big melt in the 2006. ...