Most read 2022: Ancestors without cavities, Viking swords in random backyards and glacial archaeological finds

Your interest in sex and alpha wolves has not waned – these classics continue to be well read, but your interest in reading about Covid-19 certainly has dipped.

Ancient objects that melt out of the ice in the mountains, are found in random backyards or at the bottom of deep lakes, however, have certainly caught your attention.

Here are the most read stories on sciencenorway.no in 2022:

1.
Why didn't our ancient ancestors get cavities?

People used to not have cavities. So why do we get them today?

2.
A reindeer hunter lost this knife in the Norwegian mountains 1500 years ago

“It’s incredibly well preserved”, says archaeologist Lars Pilø from Secrets of the Ice.

3.
Why was this flimsy Roman-looking sandal buried beneath the snow in an ancient, dangerous Norwegian mountain pass?

“It looks almost like a sandal. It’s pretty astonishing, we’re up here at almost 2000 metres, and we find a shoe with fashion elements, similar to those found on the Continent at the time,” says glacial archaeologist Espen Finstad.

4.
Shipwreck discovered at the bottom of Norway’s largest lake – possibly 700 years old

Marine archaeologists believe the ship dates to sometime between 1300 – 1850. It was found at the bottom of the lake Mjøsa, at 410 metres.

5.
Found a Viking sword in the backyard

It wasn't a couple of pieces of an old rusty plow. It was a Viking sword.

6.
7,000 year old fish traps discovered in the Norwegian mountains

Stone Age folks in the Norwegian mountains didn’t just hunt reindeer. A unique find from this summer reveals that they had also developed extensive fish traps in the lakes.

7.
The last person who touched this three-bladed arrowhead was a Viking

“We have never found an arrowhead like this before”, the glacial archaeologists from Secrets of the Ice in Norway recently reported on their Facebook-page.

8.
World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

The nearly 10 000-year-old spruce tree is only five metres tall, but it began to grow just after the last ice age ended.

9.
Now researchers know how the sickest COVID-19 patients have fared

They have good news for COVID patients who ended up in a coma and on a ventilator in Norwegian intensive care units.

10.
A lost Viking town discovered in the 1950s is stored away in this basement

Not until recently have researchers really started studying a thousand-year-old Norwegian town we know surprisingly little about.