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1,500-year-old spearheads, wooden posts, and antlers emerge from the melting ice

Archaeologists are confident they have found a trapping facility that once played a role in the prosperity of western Norwegian communities during the Early Iron Age.

Antlers bearing cut marks became the strongest indication of how the site had been used.

(Photo: Leif Inge Åstveit / University Museum of Bergen / University of Bergen)

Anders Moen Kaste Anders Moen Kaste Anders Moen Kaste Journalist

Published 16 November 2025 - 00:01

A finely crafted antler clothing pin was also found.

Autumn 2025 has been hectic for a group of archaeologists from the University of Bergen and Vestland County Municipality.

They were alerted by hiker Helge Titland, who noticed unusual objects appearing from a shrinking ice patch on the Aurland Mountain.

Archaeologist Øystein Skår among the birch logs. They are so well preserved that the bark is still attached.

The archaeologists believe this is a 1,500-year-old reindeer trapping facility. This time period is called the Early Iron Age.

The facility consists of several hundred hewn logs that once formed two fences. These fences guided reindeer into an enclosure, also constructed from wooden logs, Vestland County Municipality writes in a press release (link in Norwegian).

Oars with carved designs: "Still a mystery"

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Intricately made wooden objects, arrowheads, and antlers with cut marks offer insight into the activities that took place here. The antlers in particular make the archaeologists certain that this was a trapping facility.

Spearheads were among the items that emerged from the melting ice.

"The most unexpected discovery is one or more oars decorated with detailed ornamentation. What these were used for, and why they were brought into the mountains 1,500 years ago, is still a mystery," archaeologist Øystein Skår says in the press release.

"We also uncovered a beautifully crafted antler clothing pin. It was probably lost by a hunter in the heat of the moment," he says.

May have had greater significance than previously assumed

Archaeologist Leif Inge Åstveit tells Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK that many wealthy individuals lived in the fjord communities of western Norway at the time.

"It also gives insight into the importance reindeer hunting may have had in a broader societal context during the Early Iron Age," says Åstveit.

He points out that this economic surplus must come from somewhere.

"And we now suspect that wild reindeer hunting played an even greater role than earlier believed," he says.

Leif Inge Åstveit with one of the oars found in the trapping facility. Researchers do not know what these were used for.

An oar with a clearly visible pattern carved into the wood.

Preserved in the ice

The team has a theory about why the site is so well preserved.

"Colder temperatures caused the site to be covered with snow year-round. Hunting in the area would no longer have been possible," says Skår.

"Over time, the site became encapsulated in the ice. The remarkably preserved antlers show that this must have happened quite soon after the site was put into use," he says.

The glacier-monitoring programme Secrets of the Ice also shared the discovery on its Facebook page. These archaeologists were not involved in the excavation, but they describe the site as exceptionally well preserved and unique.

"One challenge now is that objects risk disappearing as people collect them. And once the ice melts further, any wooden material will decay quickly," says Skår.

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He now hopes that parts of the discovery will eventually be exhibited. Some items have already been collected and are now being preserved by the University Museum of Bergen.