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Ötzi – a new understanding of the holy grail of glacial archaeology

Lars Pilø

Posted on November 7, 2022

Ötzi the iceman is the holy grail of glacial archaeology, nothing less. The discovery of the 5300-year-old mummified body and the associated artefacts created a media frenzy and great public interest. Today, 250000 people visit the Ötzi Museum in Bolzano each year to get a glimpse of Ötzi and the exhibited artefacts. A wealth of …

Finding and Documenting Glacial Archaeological Sites

Lars Pilø

Posted on December 15, 2021

We have published a new scientific paper, this time in the Journal of Field Archaeology! Earlier, we have focused on the radiocarbon dates of the finds and on two of our most interesting sites (Lendbreen and Langfonne). However, the mountain ice now melting in many places around the world. The time has come to tell …

The Best-Preserved Pair of Skis from Prehistory

Lars Pilø

Posted on October 5, 2021

We have found the best-preserved pair of skis from prehistory! Back in 2014, the Secrets of the Ice program found an exceptional pre-Viking ski, 1300 years old, at the Digervarden Ice patch in Norway. The ski was complete, including the binding – one of only two skis from prehistory in this condition. Ever since, we …

The Lost Viking Settlement

Lars Pilø

Posted on June 9, 2021

The lost Viking mountain pass that melted out of the Lendbreen ice patch was a fantastic and baffling discovery. The discovery made headlines around the world, but it also raised questions. Who were the travelers going through this high mountain pass and where were they going? To gain an answer, we realised that we would …

Prehistoric Arrow Bonanza at Langfonne

Lars Pilø

Posted on November 25, 2020

For years, we kept the identity of one of our ice sites hidden, referring to it as our “secret arrow site.” The reason for the secrecy was that it contained a treasure trove of arrows. In fact, it is the ice site in the world with most arrows, and by a large margin. Doing fieldwork …

The Hunt for the Lost Mountain Pass

Lars Pilø

Posted on April 16, 2020

Mountain glaciers are retreating due to global warming. Surprisingly, this creates a boon for archaeology. Incredibly well preserved and rare artifacts emerge from melting glaciers and ice patches in North America, the Alps and Scandinavia. A new archaeological field has opened up – glacial archaeology. The archaeological finds from the ice show that humans utilized …

The Iceman from British Columbia

Lars Pilø

Posted on January 8, 2020

Human remains from the ice have always received a lot of public interest. Almost everyone has heard about Ötzi, the 5200-year-old iceman from the Tyrolean Alps. But have you heard about Kwäday Dän Ts’inchi – the Iceman from British Columbia? If not, you are seriously missing out on one of the most fascinating finds from …

Reidar Marstein – Our Local Hero of Glacier Archaeology

Lars Pilø

Posted on November 14, 2019

One member of the Secrets of the Ice team is not a professional archaeologist. Reidar Marstein is a hobby archaeologist from Lom. Why is he a core member of the team? Well, there are a number of reasons for that, but the main reason is that without him, glacier archaeology here in Oppland would have …

Buried in Ice – The Franklin Expedition Cemetery

Lars Pilø

Posted on October 28, 2019

«He’s there, he’s right there”. The archaeologists stood back in shock and awe. Nothing had prepared them for the encounter with the Victorian seaman from the lost Franklin expedition, buried in the frozen ground in the Canadian High Arctic. it was like he had just died. We take a closer look at the investigation of …

The Skis That Came In From The Cold

Lars Pilø

Posted on October 4, 2018

The use of skis for wintertime transport and hunting goes back into the mists of prehistory. The further we go back, the more uncertain and intriguing the story becomes. Mysteries abound. Where did skiing start? Siberia, the Altai Mountains, Scandinavia or somewhere else? The experts disagree. Were skis invented independently in more than one place …

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