Ancient findings
As climate change melts the ice patches of Norway, artifacts from the past 6,000 years are being exposed. From 2006 to 2015, archaeologists collected more than 2,000 of these artifacts — mostly iron-tipped arrows from reindeer hunters — and dated 153 of them using radiocarbon dating.
In a new study, these dated artifacts have informed archaeologists about the number of people who came to Norway's mountainous regions in the past, and how these people hunted the reindeer there. In this photo, an archaeologist holds a roughly 1,400-year-old arrow found in the high mountains of Oppland, Norway. Hunters used this arrow during the Late Antique Little Ice Age. [Read more about the ancient reindeer hunters]
Mountain reindeer
When the weather is warm, reindeer gather on the ice and snow to avoid parasitic insects. Ancient hunters knew this and often hunted reindeer on the ice using bows and arrows.
Bronze Age shoe
A shoe dating to 1300 B.C., one of the earliest discoveries from the ice in Oppland County.
Iron Age arrow
An Iron Age arrow from the Norwegian mountain Trollsteinhøe.
Arrow vanes
Arrow fletching from the Lendbreen ice patch: This fletching, or vanes, helped give the arrow stability as it flew through the air.
Systematic survey
The archaeologists surveyed the mountains systematically.
Walking stick
A close-up photo of a runic inscription on a walking stick that was dated to the 11th century A.D.
Old tunic
The melting ice revealed this tunic, which was radiocarbon-dated to about A.D. 300.
Blue skies
A reindeer in Oppland, Norway.
Norway-reindeer-10
An arrow that dates to about A.D. 800, the beginning of the Viking age.
Arrow close up
An Ice Age arrow found in Trollsteinhøe, Norway.
