Discover our other sites:

You might be looking for...

Annonse

The oldest ice is disappearing: The Stone Age is emerging from the melting ice

'We have been at the edge of the ice. We have seen it happening. And we are witnesses to a rapidly changing archaeological landscape,' write the glacial archaeologists. Finds from the Viking Age are becoming scarce, while 6,000-year-old arrowheads are now emerging from the melting ice.

Image of a hand holding an ancient arrowhead. In the background, a snow patch and numerous rocks can be seen.

A 5,000-year-old arrowhead made of slate, found together with parts of its shaft right at the edge of the ice. Domesticated reindeer can be seen on the ice patch in the background.

(Photo: Åsa Rommetveit Celius / Innlandet County Municipality / Secrets of the Ice)

Ida Irene Bergstrøm Ida Irene Bergstrøm Journalist

Published 26 September 2026 - 00:01

For exactly 20 years, archaeologists working with Secrets of the Ice have been recovering and preserving artefacts emerging from the ice in the mountains of Innlandet, eastern Norway.

Until now, most of the objects have been up to 2,000 years old. Many date from the Viking Age.

But the ancient ice is now beginning to melt.

And within this oldest ice lie the oldest finds: large quantities of arrow shafts and arrowheads from the Bronze Age and the Stone Age.

Image of a hand holding an arrowhead made of bone. — A bone arrowhead found together with parts of its shaft right beside the ice. Approximately 5,000 years old.

Close-up of an arrowhead made from a freshwater mussel shell. It is black and white and has begun to split apart. — An arrowhead made from a freshwater mussel shell, dating from the Bronze Age, approximately 3,600 years old. The arrowhead is fragile and has begun to split apart.

Here comes the Stone Age

Annonse

One of the oldest finds from this year's first field expedition is an arrow with an arrowhead and shaft made of slate.

By comparing it with previously discovered arrows, archaeologists estimate that it is between 5,000 and 6,000 years old.

The fact that arrows are emerging from the melting ice is not surprising. Over the 20 years they have been working here, the archaeologists have found extensive evidence of reindeer and reindeer hunting. They have also found clothing, shoes, dead packhorses, and a pair of skis.

The preservation conditions in the ice have meant that organic material, such as wood, leather, and textiles, have also survived.

“This year, we found 48 prehistoric arrows. That's a lot,” Espen Finstad, who leads Secrets of the Ice, tells Science Norway.

He explains that, with these latest discoveries, more than 100 arrowheads and arrow shafts have now been recovered from a single ice patch over the years.

The oldest arrowheads are made from slate, freshwater mussel shells, and bone. More recent arrowheads are made from iron and are 'only' between 1,000 and 1,500 years old.

An archaeologist lies on her stomach on the ice to photograph an arrow shaft lying in the ice. — Archaeologist Åsa Rommetveit Celius from Innlandet County Municipality documents the discovery of a 1,000-year-old arrow shaft.

Kjetil Loftsgarden holds a complete arrow approximately one metre long. — Archaeologist Kjetil Loftsgarden from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo holds a complete 1,800-year-old arrow with a bone arrowhead and a wooden shaft.

A brutal backdrop

But this year’s fieldwork carries an added sense of gravity.

Finstad explains that the work of recovering archaeological artefacts from the ice has always carried a certain duality.

“It’s fun going around looking for things. It’s exciting, and finding something is just really cool," he says.

Yet behind the excitement lies the reality of climate change. Finstad points to the recent landslide in Nepal and the glacier collapse in Jotunheimen.

“We have always acknowledged this contradiction and the reality behind our work. But this is the first time it has truly affected us on an emotional level,” Finstad says, adding:

“This year, there was a much deeper sense of seriousness and sadness. Only patches of ice remain where we once had large ice patches. It's brutal. And this year, that reality struck us more forcefully than ever before."

Annonse

Image of the ten participants in the fieldwork. The mountains can be seen in the background. — Participants in the field from the Glacier Archaeology Programme in Innlandet, Secrets of the Ice.

Tents in the mountains, several of them red and some brown. The sun is rising, and the sky is blue with some cloud cover. Fresh snow covers the ground. — The glacial archaeologists’ tent camp in Jotunheimen at sunrise. Fresh snow on the ground.

Finstad and his colleagues estimate that most of the ice patches containing archaeological artefacts will have disappeared within the next 20 years.

“There has been ice here for 6,000–7,000 years. Nature has been warning us and sending signals for many years. But now it's giving up. Now it is simply going to melt,” says the glacial archaeologist.

'For thousands of years, ancient ice has safely preserved unique objects from the past. Now that ice is disappearing,' the archaeologists write in a press release about the finds. 'We have been at the edge of the ice. We have seen it happening. And we are witnesses to a rapidly changing archaeological landscape.'