Prehistoric Viking weapons revealed as glaciers melt in Norway
Archaeologists discovered Viking-era weapons in Norway as the summer’s heat wave melts glaciers across Europe.
A research team from the Secrets of the Ice Glacier Archaeology Program set out with their eyes on a new ice patch in the Jotunheimen Mountains in Innlandet County, Norway, the program posted on Facebook on Aug. 17.
The spot, about 240 miles northwest of Oslo, was once a reindeer hunting site. Their expedition to survey the former hunting site exposed by melting ice led to multiple discoveries.
Wedged partially underneath a pile of loose stones on the edge of the ice, researchers found a 1,500-year-old arrow, they announced on Aug. 18.
Shortly after, they found another arrow lost during the early Viking Age with an iron arrowhead and the complete shaft, researchers posted on Aug. 20. The arrow’s shaft had a wooden notch carved at the end for hunters to balance the arrow on a bow, photos showed.
As the search continued, they discovered something even rarer: a three-bladed arrow. “We have never found an arrowhead like this before,” the team posted on Aug. 25. “The last person who touched it was a Viking.”
“This type of arrowhead is known, but it is rare,” Lars Pilø, co-director of Secrets of the Ice, told Science Norway. All three arrows were likely lost “when the hunters missed the reindeer and the arrows disappeared into the snow,” Pilø told Newsweek. “A missed shot, but an archaeological bull’s eye.”
Image: Espen Finstad and secretsoftheice.com
“The ice works like a giant deep freezer and can preserve the artifacts in a pristine conditions, like they were lost yesterday,” Pilø told McClatchy News. “Once they melt out though, the clock starts ticking fast. We need to search for and rescue these artifacts before it is too late.” This particular former reindeer hunting ice patch, which Arkeo News identified as the Langfonne ice patch, has “dramatically” melted in recent years.
“Its current size is less than 30 percent of what it was 20 years ago,” the outlet reported. Farther north in Norway’s arctic island archipelago, Svalbard, glaciers have melted at a record pace Axios reported, on Aug. 3.
Further south in the Alps — a snow-capped mountain range running through eight European countries — melting glaciers have reached a never-before-seen pace this summer, The Washington Post reported. “I would say it is off the charts compared to anything we’ve ever measured before,” a glaciologist at ETH Zurich told The Washington Post.
Glaciers across the Alps have shrunk dramatically after a mild winter and the above-average temperatures of the region’s summer heat wave, experts explained to the outlet. In the Alps, melting glaciers have exposed human remains — likely from lost hikers — and the remnants of a 1968 plane crash, The Guardian reported.
Across Europe, the months of below-average rainfall and above-average temperatures have caused a heat wave and drought, leaving almost two-thirds of the continent under drought warning or alert conditions. Pieces of long-lost history — such as the Elbe River’s “hunger stones” or the Lima River’s Roman ruins — have surfaced in parched waterways.
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Header image: Espen Finstad and secretsoftheice.com
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Alan
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Which is of course proof that it was as warm when they were put there as it is now.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Alan,
Great Seeing the Obvious. Do you believe these Archaeologists and Aspen Pflughoeft. realize what they have just found and reported relative to global warming and climate change ideas (claims)?
“The most obvious is most difficult to see” but you saw it!!!
Have a good day, Jerry
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K Kaiser
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About “Across Europe, the months of below-average rainfall and above-average temperatures have caused a heat wave and drought, leaving almost two-thirds of the continent under drought warning or alert conditions.”
Yes, indeed, these two observations go hand-in hand.
It’s the water cycle that controls the climate, and NOT carbon dioxide (CO2).
Just look at planet Mars: No water but 96% CO2 in the atmosphere, and PLUS 30 C on the sunny day side but MINUS 100 C on the night side.
This aridification process of Europe and (northern) Africa will lead to higher summer and (much) lower temperatures in winters to come.
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Wisenox
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This is a staged story. They just want to show the sagitta. Bellerophon, Sagittarius, Perseus and Centaur all spear the Christ. They aren’t the only ones that kill it, but they all do it with a spear or arrow.
Although, the sagitta in Perseus is hidden in his history.
In fact, Centaur is the one who makes the sacrifice when the Ark inhabitants exit the ship in the original flood stories. This happens on 9/11, 10 days before the equinox. The sacrifice was made to ensure a good harvest, which includes the destruction of the old.
I don’t believe the story is legit in any way. Looks as though the spear is purposely placed to be an icon, rather than a scientific discovery.
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T. C. Clark
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What color is the sky in the Twilight Zone? The last warming period was the Medieval Warming Period…..the southern tip of Greenland was settled.
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Jerry Krause
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HI T. C.,
Very good T. C.!!! Another unquestionable historically observed fact.
Have a good day, Jerry
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