A little to the west is another large site with the same types of finds. This will be target no. 2. This site has yielded three arrows and a number of scaring sticks previously. It is close to one of the largest collections of hunting blinds in our county. Team size here will also be eight or nine people, including volunteers.
The wild-card this year, so to speak, is a lost trail through the heart of the Jotunheimen Mountains. This route is believed to cross a large glacier, and is potentially very interesting, but there is no ground intelligence on finds here so far, only vague information on the presence of house ruins on either side of the glacier. We plan to use a smaller team for this fieldwork. If we get early snow on targets 1 and 2, we can redirect fieldwork to the route as it is mostly situated at lower altitude than the other sites.
In the run-up to the field season, each of the three chosen targets will be visited. We need to find good sites for our basecamps as close to the ice as possible, including lower altitude backup campsites in case of bad weather. A good campsite should have level ground, easy access to water and preferably some shelter from the wind. Information on the availability of cellphone coverage on different parts of the sites is also important, mainly for safety reasons.
Before the fieldwork, we check all our equipment, and update and repair it, when there is need. This is tedious, but important work. Once you are on the site, it is too late to discover faulty equipment.
We also need to obtain permissions for our fieldwork, both from the landowners and the national park authorities, where this applies.
The field plan is subject to change, depending on melting conditions. If we get heavy melting, we will re-prioritize and spend our time monitoring sites that have already seen systematic survey. On several of the previously surveyed sites, the ice has melted back to Stone Age Levels. We really need to be there if the ice melts even further back. As we say: “This is when the goodies come out”.
If we get a cool summer and little melting, fieldwork may be scaled back. We may also experience problematic weather, which could lead to rescheduling of fieldwork. This flexible approach is a vital part of planning for glacial archaeology fieldwork.
Waiting for the developing of the melting conditions during the summer has always been a two-sided story. On the one hand, we would really like to discover exciting finds melting out of the ice. On the other hand, the continued melting of the high mountain ice sends a dark message about climate change. Therefore, if there is no melting and few finds, we can console ourselves with the hope of keeping the ice a little longer.
We will know the result of the summer melt in two months.